Gerry Brownlee and his family had hosted US Ambassador Scott Brown, above, and his wife to the All Blacks test in the capital a week ago. Photo / Mark Mitchell
New ambassador and Foreign Minister hit it off in era of increased co-operation.
The new foreign Minister, Gerry Brownlee, and the new US ambassador, Scott Brown, have clearly hit it off.
That was evident from the July 4 celebrations this week at Victoria University.
Brownlee and his family had hosted Brown and his wife to the All Blacks test in the capital a week ago.
Brown and Brownlee joshed their way through their speeches to the several hundred Kiwis and other diplomats there.
Brown is keen to do a triathlon in New Zealand. Brownlee said he would meet him on the start line.
Brown said he felt so privileged to be representing his country as an ambassador that if he died that night he would remember it forever. Brownlee hoped he wouldn't die that night.
Brown thanked Brownlee for his courtesy to the Secretary of State who visited New Zealand in June and said Rex Tillerson had appreciated the directness for which Brownlee was well known. That drew a big laugh.
Brown said his job here was to explain President Trump's policies - although no one laughed at that challenge.
Many were curious to see the man President Donald Trump had shoulder-tapped for New Zealand, including the Israeli ambassador, Itzhak Gerberg, back from his forced recall to protest New Zealand's role in getting the Security Council to again condemn Israeli settlements.
Equally many were curious to see Brownlee in action to get a measure of what an English-Brownlee era might mean for New Zealand - US relations after the eight-year Key-McCully era.
If Brownlee could walk back New Zealand's position on the Security Council resolution as he did in his first day in the job, how might he walk forward New Zealand's relationship with the US?
What is already evident is that it is getting closer and is about to get a lot closer with both diplomatic and military engagement.
It will build on the normalisation that occurred in the past eight years but growing security threats in the region, namely involving North Korea and the Philippines, will drive closer relations.
Disaster and recent tragedy have accelerated defence co-operation at a more advanced pace than the symbolic visit to New Zealand in November of a US destroyer, the first ship visit in 33 years after New Zealand's anti-nuclear laws saw it suspended from Anzus.
The USS Sampson was diverted from the New Zealand Navy's birthday celebrations in Auckland to help out after the Kaikoura earthquake.
Last month the New Zealand Government seized an opportunity to reciprocate after the maritime collision involving the USS Fitzgerald near Japan, which killed seven sailors, to offer Te Kaha's services to the US Navy.
Te Kaha is now essentially working as a replacement to the Fitzgerald as an integral part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which comprises a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, as the mother ship.
The New Zealand Defence Force released a photo on Thursday of Te Kaha being refuelled at sea by the Nimitz, a carrier that is banned under New Zealand law from entering New Zealand waters because it is nuclear powered.
There is no suggestion that the US wants the Nimitz to visit New Zealand or that the Government wants it to but the contrast between New Zealand's anti-nuclear law and how close New Zealand has become to the US in a short time couldn't be more starkly illustrated than by that photo.
The new reality is that we are willing to literally work alongside our nuclear friends in international waters in co-existence with anti-nuclear laws.
By way of another contrast, for the past few months, New Zealand has been taking a leading role as vice chair of negotiations at the UN in New York to produce a new international treaty outlawing nuclear weapons, although that was a legacy role undertaken in the McCully era.
Whether Brownlee would have approved of New Zealand taking such a prominent role in the treaty process, had it begun under his watch, is questionable.
None of the nine nuclear powers is taking part and almost no country that is an ally of the United States is taking part.
However in the immediate future, New Zealand's maritime co-operation with the US will almost certainly accelerate as North Korea's nuclear programme steps up - the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group was deployed to the region specifically in response to missile testing by North Korea.
The other potential trouble-spot for further co-operation is in Mindanao in the southern Philippines where the city of Marawi was seized in May by insurgents fighting under the Isis flag.
Any assistance would have to be at the invitation of the host country but the US, Australia and New Zealand are working together in the Middle East to help Iraq combat Isis through troop training and air support.
It is not such a big step to think similar assistance could be offered closer to home, although it is doubtful there would be great enthusiasm for such a role under a Labour- New Zealand First Government, given their opposition to the Iraqi mission.
Australian P3 Orions have already helped with patrols of the southern Philippines.
The US relationship with the Philippines runs hot and cold, depending on who is in power but Trump and President Duterte have begun a thaw from previously frosty relations with Barack Obama.
Trump is currently on an international outing in Europe for the G20 hosted by Angela Merkel, his rival for the title of leader of the free world.
At a press conference, Trump said enigmatically that North Korea had been acting in a very, very dangerous manner and "something will have to be done about it."
Ambassador Brown?
•This column last week said that Winston Peters had not been raised on a farm in Northland when, in fact, he was. The error is regretted.
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