The Partnership Forum has quickly become the most important public-private sector event in the bilateral relationship of New Zealand and the United States.  The Forums bring together key government, industry and other opinion leaders to elaborate off the record on the remarkable partnership on trade, investment, security and the environment that has emerged between the two countries, to network with peers, and to discuss collaborative business arrangements and other opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.  To facilitate discussion, the delegations are limited to 50 from each country.  

The Forum draws major opinion makers from both countries and acclaimed by both governments as a catalyst for the positive changes over the past five years that have led to the strongest US-NZ relationship in more than a quarter-century.  The inaugural Partnership Forum was held in Washington D.C. in April 2006.  Subsequent Forums were held in Auckland in September 2007 and in Washington D.C. in October 2009.  A fourth Partnership Forum is to be held in Christchurch, New Zealand, in February 2011.  

The Partnership Forum is supported at the highest level of both governments but is strictly non-partisan and non-governmental in nature.  At the Forum in Auckland in 2007, NZ's Prime Minister, then Leader of the Opposition John Key called the Forums "a bit ahead of the curve in terms of the US/NZ relationship."  "It makes sense", he said, "to find occasions such as this-close to, but not formally part of government-to allow a free flow of ideas."  As delegates quickly have found, when combined with the introductions the Forums provide to the culture, traditions and travel opportunities of the host country, this "free flow of ideas" facilitates understanding, creativity and moments to contemplate the "big ideas" necessary to move the countries, the region, and the world forward, safely and sustainably.  

Recent events such as the entry of the United States into the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations and the signing of the "Wellington Declaration" by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NZ Foreign Minister Murray McCully in November 2010 symbolize the vast improvement in the US-NZ relationship and significantly broadened collaboration between the two countries.  These developments make the fourth Partnership Forum to be held 20-22 February 2011 in Christchurch, New Zealand more timely and important than ever.