Ele Ludemann: No benign strategic environment

It’s more than 20 years since then-Prime Minister Helen Clark said we had a benign strategic environment.

Whether that was correct then is debatable, but there should be no debate that it is not correct now.

It’s now three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, three years of unnecessary deaths, injuries, and property destruction.

Three years on, New Zealand stands with Ukraine:

As the world marks three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced additional sanctions on Russian entities and support for Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction.

“Russia’s illegal invasion has brought three years of devastation to Ukraine’s people, environment, and infrastructure,” Mr Peters says.

“These additional sanctions target 52 individuals and entities involved in Russia’s military-industrial complex, its energy sector, North Korea’s support to Russia’s war effort, and the forced relocation or re-education of Ukrainian children.”

Mr Peters announced a further $3 million contribution to the World Bank-administered Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund.

“The Fund supports the Government of Ukraine to maintain services, conduct relief efforts, and plan and implement recovery, reconstruction and reforms,” Mr Peters says. . .

While any support will be welcome, nothing a tiny country like ours can do will counteract the damage done by UAS President Donald Trump in his siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin and spouting lies about which country started the war and attacking Ukraine President President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Closer to home Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific countries are right to be concerned about the Cook Island’s memorandum of understanding with China and China’s naval excursion in the Tasman Sea.

A “big budget” investment in defence has been signalled by Defence Minister Judith Collins who says “we clearly need to step up our game” in light of China’s live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea.

China conducted a second live firing exercise from a warship near Australia on Saturday afternoon. . .

Collins told 1News China was within its rights to conduct these drills, but she thought it was best practice to give 12 to 24 hours notice of live firing exercises.

“Having said that, there’s no reason to think the People’s Liberation Army Navy has breached international law or the UN Convention on the law of the sea.

“They’re allowed to do what they’re doing, and it’s just better practice to give better notice.”

She told 1News it was clear New Zealand was no more a “long way away from anywhere” due to modern technology and defence.

“We need to clearly step up our game.”

Asked if New Zealand’s military was weak or underfunded, Collins said defence staff were exceptionally strong and that there was not a “more positive group of people who are keen to deploy at all moments”.

“But that’s not good enough. We need to do more, and we certainly need to spend a lot more to get ourselves back out of the ICU and into the ward.”

Collins told the news agency that New Zealand’s position in the Ring of Fire meant we had access to minerals and rare earth materials that other countries did not.

“They want them, and we have to understand it’s like living with an enormous treasury, but with a tiny little lock, and we need to make sure that lock is bigger.” . . 

“This is a big budget item for us, and it’s going to have to be for quite a long term to make up for the 35 years of feeling that we’re living in this wonderful world where nothing bad could happen.

“We have to do this, we have it do it well, and we have to do it in a careful and sustainable manner, and it can’t be a one-off excitement and sugar rush. It’s got to be something that actually stays with us and stays in our psyche.

“We cannot hide at this end of the world anymore.”

All budget items are problematic when the country’s in the dire economic straits it is. This is a very big budget item but it’s one we can’t afford to put off.

Trump is clearly signalling that the USA is no longer going to be standing up for the free world and in the malign strategic environment we have to everything we can to stand up for ourselves.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.