US Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed defence “burden sharing” with Foreign Minister Winston Peters, according to the US State Department.
Rubio, who is US President Donald Trump’s top diplomat, and Peters met in Washington DC on Wednesday morning. Peters afterwards said he was “very pleased” with the discussion, which covered both security and trade matters.
A brief statement published on Thursday by the State Department, which Rubio heads, said the pair discussed “avenues for strengthening defence cooperation through burden sharing, allowing our militaries to work more closely together, and ensuring security and economic strength in the Pacific region”.
“Both parties discussed our valued trade relationship, with the Secretary noting about maritime challenges, that the ultimate trade barrier is the inability to transit sea lanes.
“Also emphasised was the importance of cooperation on emerging technologies, and in particular New Zealand’s space sector.”
Rubio, in a statement on a social media page, said the meeting was “productive”, and covered “burden sharing, Pacific security, economic strength, and New Zealand’s impressive space sector”.
“The US-New Zealand partnership is key for promoting stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.
“Burden sharing” refers to the Trump administration policy of pushing allies and partners to increase their spending on defence, to shift the expense of global security away from the US.
Rubio’s statement gave no indication of how New Zealand would be considered as Trump plans reciprocal and agricultural trade tariffs, which could damage New Zealand exports.
Reference to “maritime challenges” comes after China’s navy conducted live fire exercises in the Tasman Sea.
The US and Australia have referred to a need to keep sea lanes “open” when justifying the Aukus defence agreement, which will provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
New Zealand has expressed interest in joining a separate, defence-technology sharing aspect of the Aukus pact, however this went unmentioned during Peters time in Washington this week.
Peters on Thursday was en route to New Zealand, having concluded his week-long trip to New York and Washington DC.
“We came to the United States to ask the new Administration what it wants from New Zealand, and we conveyed what we would like from them,” he said in a statement issued on Thursday morning.
“This visit has provided the starting point for considering what constructive cooperation between New Zealand and the United States might look like in the months and years ahead. It is just the first step. We will now go back to New Zealand to discuss with Cabinet colleagues what we have learned here in Washington.”
Alongside meeting Rubio in Washington, he met Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and had dinner with Trump deputy assistant Sebastian Gorka and Trump deputy special envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus, who works with special envoy Steve Witkoff, currently negotiating an end to the Ukraine war.
