Ambassador out to dispel ‘myths’ about nuclear submarine pact

US Aukus ambassador Bonnie Jenkins wants to dispel “myths” about the nuclear-powered submarine defence pact with Australia that has piqued New Zealand’s interest.

Dispelling myths touted by China about Australia obtaining nuclear weapons may be easy enough. But, if the angry welcome she received at Victoria University is anything to go by, making the case for the Aukus pact may be more difficult in nuclear-free New Zealand.

“There’s been a lot that’s been written about it and said about it, but I just want to be clear that the US, Australia, UK, we’re still in the process of having discussions about additional partners,” Jenkins told The Post yesterday.

“I just want to be upfront that that’s not where we’re at right now.”

Jenkins, the US State Department’s under secretary for arms control and international security, has been in Wellington in recent days for meetings with defence and foreign ministry officials, and Defence Minister Judith Collins, about arms control and the Aukus defence pact.

The pact, between Australia, United Kingdom, and United States (the three countries making up the acronym “Aukus”) to provide Australia nuclear-powered submarines, has enlivened debate in New Zealand about proximity to the US as great power competition – and risk of conflict – with an increasingly powerful China grows.

The National-coalition Government has been unguarded about its interest in joining the so-called second “pillar” of Aukus, about sharing non-nuclear and cutting-edge defence technologies, as it seeks closer security ties with the US and

Australia.

The Labour Party, now on the Opposition benches, has expressed greater scepticism about Aukus and US power, and its disarmament and arms control spokesperson Phil Twyford has said the pact is to “protect US hegemony by projecting US war-fighting capability in our region”.

And the harder-edge of the debate – the visceral opposition – was at Victoria University yesterday morning to welcome Jenkins, who was booked to give a speech to a class.

As she walked into the theatre, protesters screamed claims about genocide in Gaza and held a banner declaring “No thanks Bonnie! NZ’rs don’t want a war with China”.

Inside the lecture hall, students protesting US support of Israel’s war in Gaza kept interrupting Jenkins and demanded she not be allowed to speak. After attempts to continue on with her talk on US arms control efforts, she ended up being pulled from the event.

Foreign Minister Winston Peters afterwards said he was “extremely disappointed to hear of the disruption”.

Speaking to The Post before the event, Jenkins said she understood there might be an “aversion” about the Aukus pact in New Zealand, but the suggestion that a closer security relationship with the US would compromise New Zealand’s independence was “a very narrow way of looking at it”.

“This is why we have to do more education about what Aukus is about ... That’s a perception that has to be addressed.“

She said both the US-NZ relationship was broader than understood – she listed various joint efforts on arms control, pacific maritime security, and strategic trade control – and the Aukus pact was broader than just military technology.