Foreign Relations of New Zealand - Nuclear Free Policy

Nuclear Free Policy

In the 1970s and 1980s anti-nuclear sentiment increased across New Zealand fuelling concerns about French nuclear testing in the Pacific at Moruroa atoll. The third Labour Government under Norman Kirk, co-sponsored by Australia, took France before the International Court of Justice in 1972, requesting that the French cease atmospheric nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in the southern Pacific Ocean. In 1972, as an act of defiance and protest the Kirk government sent two of its navy frigates, HMNZS Canterbury and Otago into the Moruroa test zone area. Peace yachts attempting to disrupt the French tests had been sailing in coordinated protests into the Mururoa exclusion zones between 1972–1991. Concerns about Nuclear proliferation and the presence of nuclear warheads or reactors on United States Navy ships visiting New Zealand ports continued to escalate. After it was elected in 1984, the Labour Party government of David Lange indicated its opposition to visits by such ships. In February 1985, New Zealand turned away the USS Buchanan (DDG-14) and in response the United States announced that it was suspending its treaty obligations to New Zealand unless port access was restored. In 1987 the labour Government strengthened its stance by declaring New Zealand a nuclear-free zone (New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987), effectively legally removing New Zealand from the nuclear deterrent scenario and banning the entry of nuclear powered warships into its ports. Warships that did not fall into this category were not blocked, but the US took the view that any subsequent visit by a warship to New Zealand could not be carried out without violating the US' security policy of "neither confirming nor denying" nuclear capability of its ships.

After increasingly acrimonious debates, in August 1986 the United States formally suspended its security obligations to New Zealand that it had under the ANZUS mutual defence pact. This suspension remains in effect today, although the US no longer carries nuclear weapons aboard its surface naval vessels. In 1987 New Zealand passed legislation making the country a nuclear free zone, namely the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act; in the same year the US retaliated with the Broomfield Act, designating New Zealand as a "friend" rather than an "ally". Relations between New Zealand and the US have had several ups and downs since then.

In recent years, some voices have suggested removing the anti-nuclear legislation, especially the ACT New Zealand political party; and up until February 2006 the National Party was in favour of holding a referendum on the issue. However, public opinion remains strongly in favour of the country's status as a nuclear free zone. In May 2006, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, Christopher Hill, described the disagreement between the US and New Zealand as "a relic" but also signalled that the US wanted a closer defence relationship with New Zealand and praised New Zealand’s involvement in Afghanistan and reconstruction in Iraq. "Rather than trying to change each other's minds on the nuclear issue, which is a bit of a relic, I think we should focus on things we can make work," he told the Australian Financial Review. Pressure from the United States on New Zealand's foreign policy increased in 2006, with U.S. trade officials linking the repeal of the ban of American nuclear ships from New Zealand's ports to a potential free trade agreement between the two countries.

Relations between France and New Zealand were strained for two short periods in the 1980s and 1990s over the French nuclear tests at Moruroa and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour. The latter was widely regarded as an act of state terrorism against New Zealand's sovereignty and was ordered by then French President François Mitterrand, although he denied any involvement at the time. These events worked to strengthen New Zealand's resolve to retain its anti-nuclear policy. Relations between the two countries are now cordial, with strong trade and many new bilateral links.