{"id":390359,"date":"2018-12-24T12:39:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T11:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/new-zealand-government-calls-for-greater-us-military-presence-in-the-pacific\/"},"modified":"2018-12-24T12:39:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T11:39:30","slug":"new-zealand-government-calls-for-greater-us-military-presence-in-the-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/new-zealand-government-calls-for-greater-us-military-presence-in-the-pacific\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand government calls for greater US military presence in the Pacific"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>New Zealand government calls for greater US military presence in the Pacific<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Tom Peters<br \/>\n    <br \/>24 December 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>During a recent visit to Washington, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters signalled a further escalation in the Labour Party-led coalition government\u2019s alignment with the Trump administration\u2019s economic war and military preparations against China.<\/p>\n<p>Peters is also Foreign Minister and leader of the NZ First Party, a right-wing nationalist, anti-Asian party. Despite receiving just over 7 percent of the votes in the 2017 election, NZ First was given several ministerial roles by Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and plays a major role in determining the government\u2019s foreign and military policy.<\/p>\n<p>Peters met with senior members of the Trump administration, including Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Adviser John Bolton.<\/p>\n<p>Peters also delivered a major speech at Georgetown University on December 15, calling for a stronger US-New Zealand alliance in the Pacific. He declared that the South West Pacific was \u201cbecoming more contested and its security\u2026 ever more fragile.\u201d He called on the US \u201cto engage more\u201d in the region, adding, \u201cwe think it is in your vital interests to do so, and time is of the essence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Clearly referring to China, Peters noted that \u201clarger players are renewing their interest in the Pacific with an attendant element of strategic competition. The speed and intensity of those interests at play are of great concern to us.\u201d He also pointed to the supposed \u201cthreat\u201d posed by North Korea and by \u201cmilitarised\u201d islands in the South China Sea, which \u201cchallenge international law and norms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s territorial disputes with&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/12\/24\/nzus-d24.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 New Zealand government calls for greater US military presence in the Pacific By Tom Peters 24 December 2018 During a recent visit to Washington, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters signalled a further escalation in the Labour Party-led coalition government\u2019s alignment with the Trump administration\u2019s economic war and military preparations against China. Peters [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-390359","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}