2 - Coming to Terms with the Regional Identity

Summary

Introduction

New Zealand did not “discover” Southeast Asia (to the extent that one can speak of “Southeast Asia”) until well after the end of World War II and thus, did not have much to do with the region in any way before then. Indeed, there was early senior level scepticism about the region. In 1953 future Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Frank Corner (then External Affairs Officer in New Zealand's High Commission in London), could write to the then Secretary, Alister McIntosh, that “we only stand to lose in South East Asia … our present limited interest in South East Asia, shown in our contribution to the Colombo Plan, has already cost us a good deal of money with doubtful benefit to us or the recipients”. Perhaps fortunately, Corner's view did not prevail although it took some years before New Zealand was ready to embrace the region wholeheartedly. By 1970, New Zealand officials noted the policy “of active involvement in Asia [effectively Southeast Asia] … participating in a new move to develop regional groupings[which was in its] early stages [and] widened the scope for us to influence Asian political thinking”.

International organizations generally were themselves also the subject of some early scepticism. As early as 1947 New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, Carl Berendesen, noted the proliferation of “United Nations and other commissions, missions, committees, conferences and so forth. I think there is a serious risk of the whole thing getting quite out of hand”. That attitude has not been unusual over the years as New Zealand has attempted to balance the costs of participating in international and regional organizations with the benefits of that participation. In practice, New Zealand has always committed itself to international organizations reluctantly, continually worrying whether value for money would be gained by membership or whether attendance would merely perpetuate talk at the expense of substantive and beneficial action. This reluctance is curious when balanced with the knowledge that New Zealand has only limited ability to achieve its international ends unless it does work through international organizations.

New Zealand's relationships with Southeast Asia's regional organizations may be considered in terms of two perhaps three distinct but overlapping phases.