A US Navy warship is to visit New Zealand next month for the first time since the 1980s, ending a 30-year-old military stalemate between the countries that was triggered when New Zealand banned nuclear warships.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key yesterday announced that he had given clearance for the destroyer USS Sampson to visit during celebrations marking the Royal New Zealand Navy’s 75th anniversary.
The visit marks a continued thaw in military relations, which turned frosty when New Zealand enacted its nuclear-free policy in the mid-1980s.
The policy prevents ships that have nuclear weapons or are nuclear powered from visiting. As the US will not officially confirm or deny if its ships have nuclear capabilities, New Zealand had imposed a blanket ban on US ships.
However, Key said he had taken advice from his own officials and was “100 percent confident” the USS Sampson was not nuclear powered or carrying nuclear weapons.
“I think it’s a sign of the fact that the relationship between New Zealand and the United States is truly in the best shape it’s been since the anti-nuclear legislation was passed,” Key said. “All of those last vestiges of the dispute that we had have really been put to one side.”
Key said he did not think the result of the upcoming US presidential election would affect the relationship.
The dispute began in 1985, when Wellington refused to allow a US destroyer to visit.
The US responded by downgrading its military ties.
New Zealand passed its nuclear-free law in 1987.
The relationship improved after 2001, when New Zealand agreed to send special forces and later a reconstruction team to Afghanistan, Royal New Zealand Navy Chief Rear Admiral John Martin said.
The US and New Zealand signed defense agreements in 2010 and 2012.
“We’ve been working with the US Navy for many decades and we’re looking forward to hosting them down here,” Martin said. “A birthday is not complete without your friends.”
US Ambassador to New Zealand Mark Gilbert said the visit helped clarify the improvement in the relationship.
He said the US and New Zealand shared similar values and had much in common, from culture to tourism.
“We’re all very excited,” Gilbert said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS