Feigned reluctance: New Zealand mulled joining AUKUS from the start

Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset.

On the same day the AUKUS security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and United States was announced on September 16, 2021 (New Zealand time), New Zealand officials gathered in Wellington for the first of two joint-agency meetings to discuss “Tier 2 AUKUS” – since restyled in official parlance as “pillar two.”

At the time, New Zealand’s non-involvement was put down to the pact’s central purpose of supplying nuclear-powered submarines to Australia and New Zealand’s prohibition of nuclear-powered vessels in its territorial waters.

Then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern said: “We weren’t approached, nor would I expect us to be.”

It wasn’t until March 2023 that possible “non-nuclear” involvement in technology sharing was publicly discussed in New Zealand, during a visit by the US National Security Council coordinator for the Indo-Pacific, Kurt Campbell.

However, the newly released information – provided following an Official Information Act request – shows that “Tier 2 AUKUS” meetings took place at Defense House in Wellington on September 16 and 23, 2021.

A month later, on October 22, New Zealand government ministers were advised that “there are likely to be significant opportunities [for] future cooperation with AUKUS … beyond the submarines, particularly in the cyber and artificial intelligence areas.”

Lack of detail and transparency

The existence of these previously undisclosed meetings and their “tier 2” agenda suggest AUKUS was always intended to expand.

They also raise significant questions about whether associate members