Anti-nuclear policy 'keeps NZ from ally status' in US

New Zealand's anti-nuclear policy remains a stumbling block to regaining ally status with the US and could reduce the chance of a free trade agreement, a US foreign policy expert says.

Charles Salmon of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies said yesterday that New Zealand was likely to remain excluded from America's inner circle of ally nations as long as it stood by its policy.

Mr Salmon, a former diplomat who spent three years in New Zealand in the 1980s, was speaking via video link to an audience at the US Embassy in Wellington.

"There is no doubt there are still individuals within the [US] Government who went through the very, very difficult estrangement process back in the 1980s," said Mr Salmon.

While those people remained and New Zealand stuck by its ban on nuclear arms and propulsion, he was pessimistic about any rekindling of the Anzus alliance.

That and other security issues could lessen New Zealand's chances of a free trade agreement, he said.

"Members of our Congress quite often ... find it difficult to make the kind of distinction between what makes good defence policy and foreign affairs collaboration and why that should not be held hostage to purely economic interests."

The US Government and bureaucracy tried to separate trade and defence issues, but the two became blurred once an issue reached Congress, Mr Salmon said.

A free trade agreement between Australia and the US could positively influence New Zealand's prospects, as could its support for the US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

By intervening with Australia in the Solomons, NZ was also making a contribution to stabilising the South Pacific, an area that was on the "radar scope" of the US Administration.

"The lesson we've learnt from Afghanistan is you cannot isolate failed states or failing states and forget about them. They very soon become a petrie dish for terrorism."

- NZPA