The United States long has been more an Atlantic nation than a Pacific one.  America was settled by Europeans, and subsequent waves of immigrants crossing the Atlantic left lasting imprints on our customs, values and religion.  

The Pacific was another matter.   Before World War II most Americans looked east not west.  Change came slowly but today American attention increasingly shifts toward the region with the world’s most dynamic economies and growing populations.  

US interests in Asia are legion and growing.   It is no accident that President Obama has made two trips to the region, Secretary Clinton six; it is not difficult to understand why China, India, and Japan were on their itineraries.  

The remarkable story of the restored vitality in America’s relationship with New Zealand, a small market country at the bottom of the Pacific, is less obvious.   But the US entry into the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations, Secretary Clinton’s November 2010 visit to New Zealand, and her signing of the Wellington Declaration with Foreign Minister Murray McCully, all are indications of a robust new relationship. 

The fourth US-NZ Partnership Forum to be held in Christchurch this month is a less publicized but nevertheless significant contributor to the positive change and the illustrious US delegation that will participate a strong indicator of the importance of the new relationship.

In contrast to much of the rest of Asia, Australia and New Zealand long had shared a special place in the American world view.  While we had revolted against British rule, we were part of an Anglo-Saxon brotherhood; we “had each others backs”.  We formed alliances as like-minded peoples.  New Zealanders fought with Americans in every war of the 20^th Century, even though New Zealand’s interests rarely were directly imperiled.

Then a NZ decision to ban warships with nuclear weapons or nuclear propulsion from NZ ports precipitated a dispute with the United States that broke up the ANZUS Alliance and soured US-NZ relations for over a quarter century.  We remained friends but were no longer allies.   Because we shared history, values, culture, and language, we stayed in touch.  Mutual trade and investment grew, tourism flourished, we normally were on the same side in conflicts and held compatible views on global issues.

But in the cold war era, which gave way to a global economy with one superpower, New Zealand too often was seen by Americans as a small market and relatively unimportant global player.  That began to change when a conservative American President and a liberal NZ Prime Minister began realizing that mutual interests in the Asia Pacific in the 21^st Century outweighed a cold war disagreement that shouldn’t define the relationship.   Those interests went far beyond trade and investment to include a range of security and transnational issues from climate change to disaster relief.

As the United States rediscovered Asia, it found that its relatively small “friend” was a key player in the region.   What started under Bush and Clark, accelerated under Obama and Key.   The Obama Administration re-entered the TPP trade negotiation.  The “Wellington Declaration”, while a general statement of principles, was one with vast symbolic importance, underscoring the oft repeated conclusion of both governments that relations are the best in at least 25 years.

Many wise leaders in both countries contributed to this remarkable turn about, not all from governments.  In 2006, the US-NZ Council and the NZUS Council organized the first Partnership Forum in Washington.  Designed as a high-level, off-the-record, gathering of 100 opinion leaders from government, business, academia and beyond, the goals initially were not ambitious.  The desired outcome of the inaugural Forum was to have everyone agree to have a second one.

This they did, resoundingly.  American co-chair Clayton Yeutter, a former Secretary of Agriculture and US Trade Representative, famously said that in all his years in Washington, he had never seen so much intellectual horsepower come to Washington from one country at one time.  This “track 2” or “track 1.5“ meeting outside of but including government has grown, not in size but importance with each succeeding Forum – in Auckland in 2007, Washington again in 2009, and now in Christchurch. 

There another “dazzling” NZ delegation will greet an American delegation of unprecedented level and quality, one that includes a Cabinet Secretary, a bipartisan Congressional Delegation of ten Members of Congress, distinguished current and former government officials such as Susan Schwab, Evan Bayh, Rich Armitage, Kurt Campbell, Chris Hill, Wendy Sherman and Thad Allen, and executives from a dozen major American companies.

Equally important, the Forum will consider a strategic study of the accelerating collaboration and how to continue the momentum.  Prepared by prestigious American and NZ think tanks, the study begins to fill in some of the blanks left by the Wellington Declaration.  It tells us that America has re-learned that this small Asia nation, also largely European by heritage but now a diverse member of the Asian and Pacific Islands family, plays a role important to American interests.   For different reasons, these two Pacific nations, one small the other very large, need each other and will walk together toward the future.

Op Ed by US-NZ Council President, John Mullen. Published in the NZ Sunday Star Times, February 20, 2011