....and Singapore newspaper doesn’t mention him
Defence Minister Andrew Little, addressing big-wigs from around the world in Singapore, was oh-so-diplomatically disinclined to identify some countries as goodies or baddies in his government’s defence thinking.
In his Speech To The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue 2023, he did say New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment identified climate change and “geostrategic competition” as the two greatest security challenges to our place in the South Pacific.
But he did not mention China, the United States or Australia.
He did mention Russia, Ukraine and North Korea.
The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, is described as Asia’s premier defence summit, “where ministers debate the region’s most pressing security challenges, engage in important bilateral talks and come up with fresh approaches together”.
Singapore’s Strait Times posted a report headed Strained US-China ties, evolving security blocs to dominate Shangri-La Dialogue
The report says:
The increasingly strained ties between the United States and China, and implications for Asia from the continuing war in Ukraine, will take centre stage at the region’s top security summit in Singapore this weekend.
The newspaper says the 20th edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue takes place from Friday to Sunday at the Shangri-La Singapore hotel in Orchard Road.
More than 550 delegates from over 40 countries will be at the three-day forum, including US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will give the keynote address.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta will also deliver speeches.
Other speakers include Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, the defence chiefs of Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, as well as the chief of staff of the Philippines’ armed forces.
Oh dear. Andrew Little was overlooked.
The newspaper report goes on to say that, ahead of the Dialogue this year, political observers had been anticipating a possible meeting between US and China’s defence chiefs on the sidelines of the summit.
But General Li, who became China’s new defence chief in March, declined Washington’s request for a meeting, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Chinese Defence Ministry blamed the US for creating “obstacles” that undermined trust and hindered efforts to improve communication between the two powers.
Gen Li has been under US sanctions since 2018 over weapons purchases from Russia.
Andrew Little’s speech to the Summit can be found on the government’s official website along with news of two government spending initiatives.
Maori are the beneficiaries of both initiatives.
He did mention Russia, Ukraine and North Korea.
The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, is described as Asia’s premier defence summit, “where ministers debate the region’s most pressing security challenges, engage in important bilateral talks and come up with fresh approaches together”.
Singapore’s Strait Times posted a report headed Strained US-China ties, evolving security blocs to dominate Shangri-La Dialogue
The report says:
The increasingly strained ties between the United States and China, and implications for Asia from the continuing war in Ukraine, will take centre stage at the region’s top security summit in Singapore this weekend.
The newspaper says the 20th edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue takes place from Friday to Sunday at the Shangri-La Singapore hotel in Orchard Road.
More than 550 delegates from over 40 countries will be at the three-day forum, including US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will give the keynote address.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Timor-Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta will also deliver speeches.
Other speakers include Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, the defence chiefs of Britain, Germany, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, as well as the chief of staff of the Philippines’ armed forces.
Oh dear. Andrew Little was overlooked.
The newspaper report goes on to say that, ahead of the Dialogue this year, political observers had been anticipating a possible meeting between US and China’s defence chiefs on the sidelines of the summit.
But General Li, who became China’s new defence chief in March, declined Washington’s request for a meeting, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The Chinese Defence Ministry blamed the US for creating “obstacles” that undermined trust and hindered efforts to improve communication between the two powers.
Gen Li has been under US sanctions since 2018 over weapons purchases from Russia.
Andrew Little’s speech to the Summit can be found on the government’s official website along with news of two government spending initiatives.
Maori are the beneficiaries of both initiatives.
- Maori Development Minister Willie Jackson – speaking of the government backing 30 new by Māori for Māori Kaupapa employment and training programmes – said $73.2m has been invested in such programmes supporting almost 3,000 Māori across New Zealand, with 80% of current participants already in employment, and 85% of those people in employment longer than six months.
- Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan, at the official reopening of Murihiku Marae in Invercargill, said the support of $9.65 million in Government funding had enabled the redevelopment to provide a bigger centre that will better services the needs of the community.
The marae buildings are self-contained, producing almost zero energy waste, zero emissions and zero waste. With solar panels installed, Murihiku will generate its own energy and contribute back to the national grid.
Latest from the Beehive
New Zealand’s most recent defence assessment identified climate change and geostrategic competition as the two greatest security challenges to our place in the South Pacific.
The government is continuing to support rangatahi in providing more funding into Maori Trades training and new He Poutama Rangatahi programmes across Aotearoa.
Murihiku Marae was officially reopened today, setting a gold standard in sustainable building practices as well as social outcomes for the people of Waihōpai Invercargill, Regional Development
In his speech in Singapore, Andrew Little says increasing geostrategic competition in the Pacific and Indian Oceans regions posed significant risks of miscalculation – particularly when nuclear weapons are part of the calculus.
Several issues over many years had converged to heighten tensions in our wider region. These include:
- Larger economies significantly growing their military spending and capabilities,
- Intensification of military exercising and challenges to freedoms of navigation,
- Destabilising actions in the South China and East China Seas,
- Rhetoric and actions that might disrupt the peaceable status quo across the Taiwan Strait,
- A Pacific Rim state, Russia, defying the rules-based international order with its unlawful and immoral invasion of Ukraine,
- And the development of long-range ballistic missiles by a pariah state, North Korea.
- Rhetoric around the possible use of nuclear weapons becoming more prominent, including false categorisations of so-called tactical or battlefield nuclear weapons,
- States in the region adding to their nuclear weapons stockpiles, including North Korea,
- And growing concerns about a deficit of prudent transparency about the real size of those stockpiles.
We believe all nuclear weapons should be verifiably and irreversibly eliminated, because there are no circumstances in which their use could be morally justified.
It is not possible to confine all of the effects of the use of nuclear weapons to a period of kinetic engagement or a zone of conflict. It necessarily follows that the use of nuclear weapons would also breach the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.
We know this because the South Pacific is where superpowers once tested their atomic weapons.
Little said New Zealand has had legislation absolutely prohibiting the acquisition, stationing and testing of nuclear weapons in this country for 35 years.
Nuclear-powered vessels have also been banned in our waters since the Cold War, and this would not change.
Like many states, New Zealand has ratified nuclear non-proliferation and test ban treaties such as the 1985 Treaty of Rarotonga, which established the South Pacific nuclear free zone, “and to which we are fully committed”.
But it was apparent that international institutions are limited in their ability to act in cases where nuclear super-powers are in conflict, Little said.
Mechanisms for the management of crises are lacking, let alone the means to facilitate wider strategic dialogue.
For small liberal democracies like New Zealand, we do not get to avoid the real-life effects of geostrategic competition. Our way of life, including the freedoms we cherish and which are guaranteed to all peoples by the UN Charter, can never be fully safeguarded from the effects of nuclear conflict in a world that tolerates nuclear weapons.
But New Zealanders know that our views on nuclear weapons are not shared by everyone. We acknowledge that, in the end, it is for sovereign states to determine how they will ensure their national security, consistent with international law. Do not confuse my country’s moral clarity with wishful thinking.
New Zealanders were prepared to equip themselves with trained defence personnel, assets and material, and establish appropriate international relationships to protect their own national security, Little said.
The government is increasing its military spending, modernising its defence capabilities and deploying personnel to hot spots around the world, and New Zealand has a range of security commitments and partnerships with neighbours and beyond our region.
We value the trust our partners place in us, and we will uphold our promises to them.
And we retain our focus on strengthening multilateral and regional institutions and their role in promoting the safety and prosperity of everyone.
These efforts would be strengthened by a nuclear free region and world. Were it so we could all focus on the other pressing security issues we all face, such as climate change.
New Zealand looks with clear eyes at the world and our own security. We will stand prepared, and will maintain the military capability necessary to contribute to the rules based international order and protection of our free and democratic way of life now and in the future.
Footage of the event is being made available on the IISS Youtube page.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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