In recent years, Maori culture has in fact been on the ascendancy in New Zealand and unlike its Anglophone counterparts, the nation’s broader identity has absorbed it. This means that in foreign relations, New Zealand is less inclined towards the zealous imperialist and supremacist mindset seen in Washington, Canberra, London and Ottawa.
Wellington is considerably more peaceful and less contentious in its outlook, which in turn influences its attitude towards Beijing. As a nation of just five million people which relies significantly on agricultural exports, China’s market of 1.4 billion hungry mouths represents a trade bonanza that is simply not matched anywhere else in the world. Why, in such circumstances, should New Zealand subscribe to an aggressive anti-China agenda?
Yet for all intents and purposes New Zealand does, on paper, effectively take a side as part of the US-led security order in the Pacific, even if it is not considered a leading player or part of concentrated groups such as ‘The Quad’ strategic security grouping of the United States, India, Japan and Australia.
To some of us, this doesn’t come as a big surprise.
A bigger ???, is should we be allies with Canada/Truedolt, Australia and their Nazi approach to Covid treatments and protocols and NZ has been a lost cause for decades.
Is it past time to reconsider if 5 Eyes and NATO in today’s world are worth being special allies?
If you believe that our security, strength and prosperity depend upon our geostrategic position as a maritime trading partner with a key set of countries we interact with in this hemisphere and on the edge of Europe and Asia, then I think we have a clear basis for understand where our true allies are and what our interests are. NATO meant North Atlantic Treaty, not middle east treaty organization.
Blessed with being a sea-power our neocons got bored after the end of the cold war and wanted to become an Asian land power. No sane person wants to be an Asian land power. But some folks are stuck with it. It's a bad lot in life because you keep having to fight other would-be Asian land powers and have no easy way of fixing defensible borders. That includes having to fight idiots in the US who want to be an Asian land power, which is Putin's beef with us as we keep trying to chisle away at some sort of geostrategic arrangement that can ensure that he has a viable polity to provide for the peace and prosperity of his people.