Booms, Busts, and Recoveries Message Board

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next

From: Haim R. Branisteanu	12/18/2010 4:30:26 PM
	Read Replies (1) of 74559

New Zealand Wooed China To Curb US Influence -Report 17-Dec-2010 WELLINGTON (AFP)--A former New Zealand government courted China and France in an attempt to curb American and Australian influence in the Pacific, according to a leaked diplomatic cable published here Saturday. New Zealand is also said to have formulated its antinuclear legislation, which caused a deep rift with Washington, because of a desire to trim its defense budget as well as for publicly stated ideological reasons. The claims are made in a 2004 cable released by the WikiLeaks website under the heading "What we could not say in the mission programme plan," the Dominion Post newspaper reported. The cable said New Zealand's Labour Party government led by Helen Clark flirted with China and France in the early 2000s "to curtail U.S. and Australian influence in the region," it said. During a visit by the Chinese vice-minister for trade, "New Zealand Trade Minister (Jim) Sutton publicly claimed that China was New Zealand's most important and valued trading partner, a claim that left Australian officials here scratching their heads in wonder." It was a previous Labour government--led by David Lange--that introduced the antinuclear legislation in the 1980s, a move that led to a decades-long rift in intelligence and military cooperation between Wellington and Washington. The cable said U.S. officials had been told by people who were senior New Zealand government officials at the time that Wellington knew the policy would lead to New Zealand being pushed out of the regional Anzus alliance with the U.S. and Australia. Exclusion from Anzus would thereby lessen "the country's defense spending requirements at a time of fiscal and economic crisis," the cable said. New Zealand's defence spending was criticized as being too inadequate to cover even "replacement costs for basic coastal defense hardware" and the defense force as having not enough troops for effective peacekeeping operations. Another leaked cable, published last week, said U.S. and New Zealand ended their 25-year break in intelligence collaboration last year but decided to keep the news secret. (END) Dow Jones Newswires December 17, 2010 17:52 ET (22:52 GMT)

Report TOU Violation

Share This Post

Public Reply Prvt Reply Mark as Last Read File

Previous 10 Next 10 Previous Next