US wants NZ in strategic alliance

New Zealand is of increasing strategic importance to the United States, says a Washington-based expert ahead of the first visit by an American defence secretary since the height of the Cold War.

Ernest Bower, of Washington-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the visit by Leon Panetta was part of a broader push to shore up and improve relations in the Asia-Pacific region.

There were also strategic reasons to step up relations with New Zealand, which included its Antarctic assets, its role in the Pacific, and the unique qualities it could bring to the relationship.

"New Zealand can bring a lot of special things to the table: Its unique knowledge and engagement in the Pacific; you've brought incredible special forces to the table in fights; and you guys have certain intelligence and technical capabilities that are pretty important to us."

But the visit has raised questions about just how close is close. A leading defence analyst, Robert Ayson, says the real question is: "How close to Anzus without actually saying Anzus are we now?"

The US and New Zealand used to be formal allies as part of the Anzus military alliance incorporating Australia, but a bust-up in the 1980s over New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy saw this country suspended from the alliance.

The most famous leg of it was the commitment by all three countries to consult if there is an armed attack on the other - widely regarded as a promise to come to each other's aid.

The nuclear-free bust-up caused a freeze in relations for close to 25 years, including a ban on military training and exercises, which has only recently been lifted.

New Zealand and the US last year signed the Washington Declaration which, among other things, committed them to respond to regional contingencies in accordance with national approval processes.

Ayson, who says the language is not too different to Anzus, says the two countries have been getting closer "bit by bit".

But Bower says that, while the relationship is close, it's not that close.

"I wouldn't want to rush it by saying we are back in Anzus because I don't think that's true . . . but I do see in the future that we would practically be there for all intents and purposes."

The difference, however, was that the new relationship was able to accommodate New Zealand maintaining an independent foreign policy stance.

"We just won't ask New Zealand to [abandon that], we don't think it's a smart idea and it's not a good way to build relationships, to ask someone to change what they are. That is the hump we got over, or are getting over, I should say."

US media have sparked a diplomatic flurry ahead of Panetta's arrival. One report suggests officials are expecting the resumption of US warship visits, which have been off the agenda since the 1980s because of America's policy not to confirm or deny nuclear capability.

Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman has scotched the report. The bottom line as far as New Zealand was concerned was that "we have an independent foreign policy and the US is very comfortable with that".