Leaders of Australia and New Zealand agreed the AUKUS trilateral defense partnership will boost regional security and stability as both countries warned they face the most challenging strategic environment since World War II.
Although not part of the defense agreement among Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, New Zealand would consider collaborating on the partnership’s Pillar II, which focuses on shared military technology.
Under Pillar I of AUKUS, the U.K. and the U.S. are supporting Australia in acquiring conventionally armed, nuclear-powered submarines.
“We share very much common values and we share common objectives, and it is not surprising we will look at any opportunity for including New Zealand in Pillar II,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spoke after the U.S. State Department affirmed the AUKUS partners now have comparable export-control regimes, a significant step toward technology sharing.
Security ties with Australia, New Zealand’s only formal defense ally, will remain close, Luxon said: “Our intention is to say we want to be fully interoperable with Australia’s defense forces.”
The nations signed a deal in 2023 to improve their armed forces’ capability and readiness.
In a joint statement after their meeting in Canberra, Albanese and Luxon said they had committed to “working in lockstep like never before to ensure our nations’ security and prosperity.”
They said they had “grave concern about dangerous, destabilising and provocative behaviour in the South China Sea” and underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
They highlighted cyber threats and said they would consider hacks as an armed attack if the intrusions threatened the territorial integrity, political independence or security of either nation.
Pillar II calls for the AUKUS partners to establish frameworks for producing, deploying and enhancing defense capabilities in critical technology areas, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute reported in May 2024. The nations will provide leadership and resources to procure government, industry and academic expertise, leveraging competitive advantages across the member nations, the institute said.
The partners in August 2024 removed barriers to defense trade, enabling faster approvals for highly sensitive technologies, officials said. They also are developing defense capabilities including hypersonic missiles, undersea drones and quantum technologies.
