11 - An East Asian Community: A New Zealand Perspective

Summary

Mr Brian Lynch commenced his lecture by stating that he was not presenting an official and definitive New Zealand perspective on the East Asian Community. New Zealand's relationship with Asia is undergoing change today like it did previously in the 1940s and 1970s. Mr Lynch posed the following questions; which direction is the relationship between the two countries headed and what would be the eventual consequence of the relationship. This is especially so when new regional lexicons are being carved out — “East Asia Summit”, “regional community” and “closer integration”.

Mr Lynch stressed that New Zealand would be swept up in the event of a major reordering of Asia's regional architecture. In the period following the end of World War II, New Zealand had to face the harsh reality of its physical location from Asia despite the fact that both regions shared the common history of being colonized. The contacts between the two regions were poor and the progressive development of the relationship has been a long and arduous one, which sometimes were stalled due to security considerations. New Zealand's main objective with Asia is to have a stable relationship with all its Asian countries and also be looked upon as a good and reliable regional partner.

Continuing to give his account of New Zealand's relationship with Asia in the 1970s, he recounted that New Zealand had security alliances and was involved in sub-groupings such as ANZUS, SEATO and the Five Power Defence Arrangements. New Zealand's relationship with Singapore has been a particularly strong one — especially since it maintained a defence presence here. It also helped ASEAN in its practices of consultation and cooperation in the aftermath of the “konfrontasi” with Indonesia and the situation in Vietnam. In 1975, although New Zealand was given the status of a “dialogue partner”, a domestic political shift stagnated its relationship with ASEAN. The 1997 financial crisis that hit the Asian economies showed that the Asian countries had integrated — primarily by their response and ability to pull themselves out of the financial quagmire despite countries individual differences.