KEY POINTS:
Former US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage likens US relations with New Zealand at present to "dating".
"It's just like dating. I think we are on a date now," he said at the second US-NZ Partnership Forum in Auckland, which finished yesterday.
"We're going to see if this works."
Mr Armitage was Assistant Secretary of Defence for international security policy at the time of the Anzus rift.
But he is now very optimistic about the future, believing that relations will soon be close to normal.
"I don't know the time-frame but I would reckon that within the not-too-distant future you will hardly know that there is no Anzus."
What would be missing was the absolute security guarantee of the United States, under the Anzus treaty.
Mr Armitage, who was deputy to Colin Powell, was one of 50 in a US delegation of business and political leaders and officials who held two days of private discussions about the relationship with 50 similar New Zealanders.
Mr Armitage now runs a consultancy in Washington with Randy Schriver, who served with him as US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
Both men were in New Zealand for the forum and both attended the inaugural one in Washington last year.
Shortly after the original one, the two penned an article for the Asian Wall Street Journal supporting a free trade agreement for New Zealand.
That view was reiterated by United States Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue, who told the forum New Zealand "deserved" a free trade agreement.
Mr Armitage disagrees - not with an FTA - but he think the United States "deserves" it.
"An FTA isn't dolled out to you. They're not going to give it to you because you are a good boy or girl. It is something that has to make sense for both of us economically."
Mr Donohue told the Herald: "We vigorously support a free trade agreement with New Zealand."
"We have already cut a free trade deal with Australia.
"We ought to do one with New Zealand."
It was an even more interesting proposition, and in the United States' own interest, because of New Zealand's negotiations with China on an FTA.
"I just think it is a recognition."
Foreign Minister Winston Peters closed the forum yesterday with a speech in which he touched on anti-Americanism in New Zealand.
"Reflexive and ill-considered anti-Americanism is simply tall-poppy cutting at its worst.
"But there are some who seem to believe that any support for US policy, even when patently in line with our own policy and interests, is to compromise an independent foreign policy. That is a simplistic and hollow view."
He said the truth was that there were few countries closer to New Zealand across a broad range of policy positions than the United States.
"New Zealanders need to keep their broad relationship with the United States in perspective - a perspective that tells us that we have few closer friends or partners in the world."
