Editorial: US port snub grates but matters little

It has taken a full generation, 25 years, for the United States to restore New Zealand's participation in defence exercises despite our nuclear port ban. Photo / AP

It has taken a full generation, 25 years, for the United States to restore New Zealand's participation in defence exercises despite our nuclear port ban. All these years we never realised the US Navy had a port ban on us.

It is 28 years since this country last took part in the big biennial Rimpac exercise with Pacific allies. This one is the biggest yet, involving 22 nations, 42 ships, 200 aircraft and 25,000 personnel. New Zealand is there with the frigate Te Kaha and the fuelling ship Endeavour, plus an Orion aircraft and an infantry platoon. All the ships except ours are welcome at Pearl Harbour.

One of the difficulties of the long nuclear dispute has been that while the conflict has been dealt with at the highest levels in New Zealand, it has naturally ranked low on the diplomatic radar of the US. It is a file in the Asia-Pacific desk of the State Department and at some equivalent level in the Pentagon. It seldom engaged the attention of Secretaries of State or Defence, let alone Presidents, and there was no reason that it should.

So we probably should not read too much into the fact that the reconciliation has not yet penetrated the US Navy's Pacific base in Hawaii. When a newspaper there asked why the New Zealand vessels would be docking at Honolulu rather than at nearby Pearl Harbour with all the others, a Pentagon spokeswoman said: "We continue to partner within existing limitations which include not allowing New Zealand Navy ships to visit US military ports."

This was clearly news to Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman, who had signed a closer defence agreement with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta in Washington just a week earlier. Their talks were no doubt conducted in the tradition, now at least 20 years old, of avoiding any topic that might risk a discussion of the "elephant in the room". Still, it would have been diplomatic to warn Dr Coleman of the Rimpac port arrangement if Mr Panetta knew about it.

New Zealand's readmission to the world's largest maritime exercise has been attributed to an earlier and equally vague agreement reached with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a visit here in November 2010. The Wellington Declaration, as it was called, was invoked by the Pentagon spokeswoman when she explained that participation in the sea exercise did not extend to naval accommodation.

New Zealand cannot blame the US Navy too much since all our ports - not just naval bases - remain barred to nuclear-powered ships. The ban has not stopped warships from Britain, France, China and other countries calling here, but the US has always taken the view that if some of its ships are unwelcome, none will come.

Its officers struggle to understand an anti-nuclear principle that does not extend to exercises at sea or to berths alongside nuclear-powered ships in American ports. The New Zealand Navy was looking forward to Rimpac for the chance to work with nuclear submarines among other things.

It grates to be excluded from Pearl Harbour but it matters much less than what happens at sea, and the snub should help this country keep its distance from any strategic purpose the exercise serves. The US has organised the largest Rimpac as part of President Obama's realignment of forces to the Pacific to counter China's growing presence.

New Zealand values its dealings with both powers. Unlike Australia, which has furnished a new base for American forces, New Zealand has no need to take sides. The US remains a natural ally even if the nuclear policy has left even more tension than we realised. Not many knew the US had a port ban too.