New Zealand Minister for Defence Judith Collins yesterday warned in an interview that small countries in the South Pacific face growing pressure from great-power competition for their rare minerals and fisheries wealth, and that more action was needed from regional neighbors to help preserve the sovereignty of island nations.
Collins, who also oversees New Zealand’s intelligence and space portfolios, spoke to The Associated Press before departing for Washington, where she is scheduled to meet with officials of the administration of US President Donald Trump, including US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Collins cited China’s encroaching presence in the region in the past few months as evidence of the global security importance of the southern Pacific.
Photo: AP
“I also say to the US that you are a Pacific nation,” Collins said, speaking in her parliamentary office in Wellington. “And it’s not just that you have Guam, it’s not just that you have Hawaii, as lovely as it is. It’s the fact that your entire California is on the Pacific Ocean, that Alaska is on the Pacific Ocean, that Russia is a Pacific nation.”
The seabed across the south Pacific is rich in rare earths that are increasingly in demand for technologies such as electric vehicle batteries and defense systems, but mining has yet to begin at scale because international rules governing access are still being established
Collins said the potential wealth of the region’s small island nations left them exposed to exploitation by powerful interests.
She did not cite China specifically, but her government expressed alarm in February when Beijing signed an agreement to collaborate on deep-sea mining research with the Cook Islands, a nation of 17,000 people that has close military, diplomatic and citizenship ties to New Zealand.
“The Pacific has enormous wealth, but it’s just not in the hands of the people,” Collins said.
She added that she did not want to see the promises of mineral wealth for those countries being “basically raped and pillaged off them.”
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