Keith Locke
Keith Locke is a former Green MP. He was the Green Spokesman on Foreign Affairs.
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Keith Locke explains why the Prime Minister’s decision to attend the NATO leaders’ meeting could turn David Lange into his grave
The invitation for Prime Minister Ardern to attend the NATO Leaders Summit may seem like an honor and an opportunity, but it has major drawbacks. Getting tied up with NATO compromises our non-nuclear status and our independent foreign policy, which is more focused on peacemaking than on warfare.
NATO is a nuclear weapons-based alliance, with three of its members, Britain, France and the United States, owning such weapons. The alliance has aggressively campaigned against any moves by the international community to find a way to complete nuclear disarmament.
Take, for example, NATO’s hostile attitude towards the Nuclear Non – Proliferation Treaty, adopted at a UN-sponsored conference by 122 countries on 7 July 2017, which has come into force now that 62 state departments have gone through their formal ratification processes.
New Zealand has been campaigning for the Treaty for years in the face of opposition from every NATO country and the three other non-member countries invited to the NATO Leaders’ Meeting, namely Australia, Japan and South Korea.
A NATO communication, dated 14 June 2021, reiterated its opposition to the Treaty as “inconsistent with the alliance’s nuclear deterrence policy” and because it “does not take into account the current security environment”. Despite widespread international support for the Treaty, NATO would not accept that it has added any legal obligations to the nuclear weapons states. Meanwhile, NATO allies Britain, France and the United States are spending billions of dollars on modernizing their nuclear weapons.
Support for the nuclear ban treaty was particularly strong in countries in the global south, and among some neutral countries in Western Europe, such as Ireland and Austria. We must continue to work with all these nations on nuclear disarmament issues, which are as relevant as ever. Conventional wars, such as in Ukraine, can become nuclear if one of the nuclear weapons miscalculates them. President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibility that Russia’s nuclear weapons could be deployed if the current conflict escalated.
This nuclear threat is one reason for New Zealand to join those countries, again mainly in the global south, which insists on an early ceasefire and peace negotiations to end the war.
It will not be easy. On the one hand, the Ukrainians who heroically opposed the Russian invasion were lost in lives and property at a terrible price. They wish for nothing less than a complete Russian withdrawal and think they can win if they get enough modern weapons from the NATO states. On the other hand are the Russians, who believe their military machine is powerful enough to capture and hold all the Donbas, and also retain the Crimea.
Perhaps there are ways in which nations in the global south can help break this deadlock, working both inside and outside the UN. A New Zealand that is too closely linked to NATO is limited in what it can do to aid such a peace process.
Ending the war in Ukraine is a matter of urgency for all countries. As a result, we are all experiencing large increases in the cost of food and energy, and higher inflation rates.
It is disturbing that 35 years after New Zealand became nuclear-free and ended its involvement in the Anzus Treaty, we have gradually crawled back under the US umbrella of defense. The recent Biden / Ardern communication was largely an American construct that praised both the Aukus (Australia, Britain, United States) defense arrangement and the Quad meetings between India, Australia, Japan and the United States, as well as China.
Our Prime Minister’s latest decision to attend the NATO Leaders’ Meeting and to miss the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda shows where her priorities lie. Former Prime Minister David Lange, a campaigner of the Commonwealth and our nuclear-free policies, may be turning in his grave.