The Government is growing increasingly concerned about the rising threat of "strategic competition" between powerful countries, according to a raft of new national security priorities.

The 2021 National Security Intelligence Priorities, released by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Thursday morning, will have the Government’s national security and intelligence agencies focusing on growing strategic competition in the Pacific, the threats or actual conflicts within New Zealand’s maritime domain, and threats to “democracy and territory” elsewhere in the world.

Ardern, in a statement, said, the priorities would “help us to identify threats, risks, and challenges to New Zealand’s security and wellbeing, while outlining current areas of interest where intelligence can support the Government to make informed decisions”.

“The safety, wellbeing and protection of New Zealanders and our nation’s sovereignty will always be paramount for the Government.”

The new priorities were a refresh on the existing 2018 list of priorities, made public for the first time in 2019. The former list, which included 16 priorities, has been replaced by a condensed but more detailed list of 13 priorities, called “ketes” (baskets), which contain “key areas of focus”.

“Middle East regional security” has been removed from the priority list, and has become one of the focuses within the priority “Global governance and strategic competition”. The former priority that was “proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons” – a key foreign policy focus of nuclear-free New Zealand – has also been wrapped into this global governance priority.

“The kete [this priority] focuses on understanding emerging global trends, changes and developments in global governance and strategic positioning by states that could impact New Zealand,” a document detailing the priorities reads.

“[This priority] also includes understanding efforts to degrade and disrupt areas of the international order in our interest.”

There was also a new emphasis on New Zealand’s maritime domain, border security, and Antarctica, which included “the prevention, detection and mitigation of risks introduced by malicious, unregulated, negligent or harmful activities within or approaching New Zealand’s maritime domain”.

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Foreign interference and espionage remained a priority, and included a lengthy list of focuses for the agencies including “coercive statecraft of foreign actors against New Zealand”, “economic espionage”, and “education sector interference”.

New Zealand’s concern about the Pacific has also been sharpened in the new priorities. Formerly, the focus was on “Pacific regional stability”. The new document lists “New Zealand’s strategic interests in the Pacific region” as a priority.

“This includes understanding the range of current and emerging threats to the stability, security, resilience and governance of the Pacific region, for instance geostrategic competition across the Pacific region, foreign interference and espionage in PICs [Pacific Island countries] ... trans-boundary issues such as climate change, resource exploitation, transnational organised crime, maritime issues, information sharing, mis/dis information, impact of Covid-19 and people smuggling.”

The growing concern about rising geo-political competition in the Pacific was similarly raised in the Government's latest Defence Assessment, of which an unclassified version was made public last week.

The assessment catalogued a series of concerns about the rising military power of China, and said the “most threatening” developments in the Pacific could include the construction of military or dual-use bases by countries not aligned with New Zealand, military supported resource exploitation, and military confrontation.

Ardern said the priorities would again be reviewed in 2023, at which point there would be a round of public engagement to determine what should be included.

The 2021 “National Security and Intelligence Priorities”

• Biosecurity and human health
• Climate change and environmental issues
• Emerging, critical and sensitive technology
• Foreign interference and espionage
• Global economic security
• Global governance and strategic competition
• Malicious cyber activity
• Maritime, border security and Antarctica
• New Zealand’s strategic interests in the Asia region
• New Zealand’s strategic interests in the Pacific region
• Terrorism and violent extremism
• Threats to New Zealanders overseas
• Transnational serious and organised crime