NZ has ‘seized opportunities’ to work closer with US on defence, space – MFAT briefing

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand’s attempts to get more cooperation with the Trump administration on defence, space and sensitive technology sectors has been paying off, according to an official briefing.

“New Zealand has seized opportunities in the first year of the current US Administration to register – at all levels – the importance of US-New Zealand cooperation across these sectors,” said a Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) briefing, dated November and newly released under the Official Information Act.

“There is support in Washington for stronger partnership with us.”

In the latest bilateral move, NZ Space Agency officials will meet their counterparts in Washington this week.

This second US-NZ space dialogue – two years after the first – aimed to “strengthen bilateral space cooperation” but details were confidential, the agency told RNZ.

It has coincided with the US Department of Defence finalising a study looking at options for its increasing number of rocket launches – including at sites in other countries.

With Cape Canaveral and its other launch sites under growing pressure, a Pentagon study – due back with US lawmakers next week – covers environmental, regulatory, cost, geographic and orbital factors that may make alternate locations “outside the continental United States… viable or advantageous”.

RNZ has asked Congress’s armed services committee for a copy.

Defence, space and emerging tech have been evolving in new ways, at a time of big change including from US President Donald Trump applying America First policies and national security interests to international alliances, domestic production and arms exports.

Two impacts have been to tie commercial and military tech and space contracts more closely together, and to increase efforts to expand the US military industrial base. US law considers New Zealand to be part of that base.

‘Closer integration with key partners’

The November MFAT briefing said technology cooperation was increasingly significant to the relationship.

“Deeper cooperation with the United States in the defence, space and other sensitive technologies sectors has the potential to deliver significant economic and strategic benefits to New Zealand,” it said.

Local firms were advancing the country’s strategic interests by “facilitating closer partnerships and closer integration with key partners” but faced complex regulatory barriers and the growing ‘buy-America-made’ hurdle.

“Importantly, the Administration is open to investigating options for addressing regulatory challenges faced by New Zealand, particularly related to the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and US domestic sourcing requirements.”

One option was to seek some sort of exemption from ITAR, it said.

The US has been lowering ITAR barriers for Australia and the UK because they are part of the nuclear-subs deal AUKUS.

The methods American firms could exploit that was the subject of a webinar this week from US trade officials – “Full Steam Ahead: AUKUS, ITAR, and the Keys to Australia’s Naval Supply Chain”.

Defence and Space Minister Judith Collins has been at the forefront of building the NZ-US relationship on these fronts, while also streamlining aerospace regulations and overseeing a defence capability plan rich in drone and emerging technology options.

But Collins steps down soon, and is not attending the Washington space dialogue or the US Space Force’s main annual symposium in Colorado next month, where last year she was the only non-US politician invited to speak.

At the symposium in 2024, New Zealand updated its agreement to align local space regulations more with America’s.

‘Few impediments to the transfer of technology’

However, the NZ Space Agency told RNZ it was not involved in the current Pentagon study that covered foreign launch sites.

Asked if New Zealand might be in danger of missing out on US business, the agency said: “Through our regulatory cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration and the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) with the US, the New Zealand Space Agency has been actively facilitating Rocket Lab’s provision of launch services from their private spaceport at Mahia since their inception. Customers of these services include US government agencies.

“If there was interest beyond Mahia, the New Zealand Space Agency would expect to become involved although not necessarily as the first point of contact.”

The November briefing said MFAT was prioritising work to strengthen the country’s export controls regime so it was more comparable “with our closest partners”, and to secure other short-term gains for local businesses in the defence, space and sensitive tech sectors.

“We have welcomed messaging from the US, at all levels, that as a close and trusted partner there should be few impediments to the transfer of technology between us,” it said.

In 2022, the US Congress said America should ensure that the Pentagon’s capabilities for rapid space launches “align with initiatives by Five Eyes countries” and other allies. New Zealand is in Five Eyes.

The US should implement space missions with allies that demonstrated “rapid launch, reconstitution and satellite augmentation from locations in the Indo-Pacific, European, and other theaters of operations” and “leverage allied and partner spaceports to diversify and disaggregate launch sites across the world for a multitude of missions, including national security missions”, it said.

After the first US-NZ space dialogue in 2024, the sides issued a statement focused on commercial space partnerships, and stating, “Participants acknowledged that New Zealand’s geographic advantages has enabled frequent and responsive launch for US industry and government agencies, adding strategic resilience to launch capacity.”

That year the NZ and US also launched a dialogue on critical and emerging tech, saying: “Both nations highlighted the necessity for increased interoperability with like-minded countries to address common challenges.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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