Audrey Young: The real message behind Ron Mark's latest Defence paper

Defence Minister Ron Mark in his Beehive office. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Defence Minister Ron Mark has had a long-standing speaking engagement at Plimmerton Rotary tonight to talk about his life story.

That means he will be missing the cocktail reception aboard the Chinese Navy training ship No 83 tied up in Wellington at present.

That may be a blessing because there may have been some awkwardness after his release earlier today of the strategic document "Advancing Pacific Partnerships".

It sets out New Zealand's Defence approach in the Pacific, the way New Zealand wants to work, who it wants to work with, what it will emphasise in the future, and what it sees as a threat.

It doesn't mention China as it did in last year's Strategic Defence Policy Statement, which drew the ire of Beijing.

But it did not need to mention China.

It is not hard to read between the lines in its view of "external powers" and "like-minded partners".

It is saying that New Zealand's neighbourhood is changing because of China's growing interest in the Pacific and it wants to work with Pacific countries and traditional friends to advance New Zealand's interests.

It is does not say that China seems intent on establishing a naval port in some pliant South Pacific nation and that that would be a devastating game-changer for Australia and New Zealand.

Defence Minister Ron Mark, right, meets his United States counterpart, Mark Esper, in Auckland in August. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Instead it says: "Geostrategic competition is not simply a consequential trend playing out among great powers. If external powers establish a greater regular presence, it could materially affect the Pacific and our own strategic circumstances."

The paper was released fortuitously the week after a political row in the Solomon Islands over a 75-year lease on the island of Tulagi (a former US base in World War II with a deep harbour) by a Chinese state-owned enterprise, China Sam Enterprise Group.

The lease, between Central Province and the SOE, was declared void by the Attorney-General because it had not had the consent of the Government.

A year ago, China was in the running to fund the development of a deep-water port on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, until the United States and Australia stepped in with a counter-offer.

Vanuatu and Fiji have previously been rumoured to be in the sites of China for a Pacific base.

The Ron Mark document is not just about China; it is also about addressing disasters and climate change.

It will dovetail Australia's "step-up" in the Pacific, a more expensive version of New Zealand's Pacific "reset" that includes the $2 billion Australia Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.

The New Zealand document it is about extending defence support and leadership to island states in the hope that they make sound choices about their futures and "external actors".

"The pace, intensity and scope of engagement by external actors, who may not always reflect our values across their activities, are at the heart of a growing sense of geostrategic competition that is animating many nations' renewed focus on the Pacific," it says.

Or perhaps between the lines: We are watching you China.