Three new US-NZ forums have recently been set up. File photo. Photo: 123rf
The United States has been drawing up of a list of "priority partners" for arms transfers. RNZ has asked the government if New Zealand is on that list.
The list is part of a big new US push this year to streamline defence sales.
This aimed to "simultaneously strengthen the security capabilities of our allies and invigorate our own defence industrial base", US President Donald Trump said.
He has signed executive orders and his administration is advancing six new laws and initiatives to free up arms trading.
Three new US-NZ forums have been set up and have met, while two powerful US arms-related Congressional delegations have also visited this year. New Zealand has recently joined three frameworks that have the primary aim to expand the US military-industrial base in the Indo-Pacific.
Political debate has swirled around the issue, with former PM Helen Clark on Tuesday accusing the government of "cuddling right back up again to Washington DC" over its stand on Gaza, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon denying the coalition's position has anything to do with the US.
The lines are clearer on the military side - official papers show 60 percent of the $6 billion in arms the NZ Defence Force has on order is from the US; and New Zealand has been keen to register its "recent uptick in military activities in the Indo-Pacific" with its partners.
The papers also show a US-NZ meeting in April about "potential opportunities for procurement from the US".
Surging US arms sales
Arms sales world-wide are surging as governments respond to US pressure - and the Gaza and Ukraine wars - to increase defence spending.
America's two systems of sales registered increases of 45 percent and 27 percent, for a combined half a trillion dollars of sales last year. The largest single items included $32b for fighter-jets for Israel.
But its arms factories cannot keep up - Ukraine has depleted its stockpile of missiles and ammunition so much it ordered a stocktake - while trade barriers are in the way elsewhere.
Trump put a Republican lawmaker in charge of a new taskforce for pulling down the barriers in March.
"We operate with high lethality and some of the most technologically advanced systems ever created by man," said taskforce chair Ryan Zinke.
"And yet, our closest allies get the bureaucratic shaft when they try to meet their defence needs with made-in-America equipment and systems."
Zinke consulted international partners before introducing six proposals last month. The first one is the 'Streamlining Foreign Military Sales Act'.
US-NZ streamlining
New Zealand is consulting on at least three new fronts with the Americans.
Officials have had "many discussions" about the issues dating back to at least mid-2023, according to papers released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to AUT Pacific historian Dr Marco de Jong under the Official Information Act.
Three new "dialogues" have been set up since mid-2024. One on space, a second on "critical and emerging technologies" - these two overlap with defence - and a third on 'Strategic and Defence Trade'.
The latter dialogue took an "important first step" to "streamlining" trade at an inaugural meeting in Washington in December.
The US showed "willingness... to engage on barriers", the papers revealed.
Most of the papers were blanked out for security reasons, but one question was not: "What is the strategic direction that the US is taking with regard to its export control regime?"
A key party is the US Directorate of Defence Trade Controls, although commercial technology is also in the mix.
The papers also showed Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) disarmament and counter-proliferation experts taking a "deeper dive" into export controls.
Some controls around space technology had recently changed, they said. RNZ is asking for details.
Australia already increasingly has "streamlined access into the US" under recent AUKUS-related law changes.
'A trusted partner'
President Joe Biden was in charge when the US instigated the three new dialogue groups with New Zealand last year.
Trump has reversed many Biden initiatives, but not the Pentagon's increasing push to integrate allies.
The overall goal remains the same: "To serve the interests of the American people."
Trump put it this way in April, when he signed the executive order to speed up arms sales and technology sharing.
The order sets up the priority partners list, a track to "consolidate parallel decision-making" with allies over who gets what US arms, and a way to lower the cost of weapons, including by "improving financing options for partners".
The "priority partner" list was due to be finalised around June.
The NZ government has previously played down the new US-led defence initiatives it has joined.
It called a regional group to boost the US military-industrial reach a "discussion forum", while US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the PIPIR group for directly supporting Trump's "peace through strength" agenda.
A senior NZ Defence Force manager who is part of a dialogue group reposted a Pentagon description of PIPIR as "nothing less than the emergence of a mesh based alliance industrial base" last month.
The newly released MFAT papers said being invited in by the US showed trust.
"New Zealand's status as a trusted partner has been recognised by the US. In late 2022, the US added New Zealand to its National Technology Industrial Base, alongside other FVEY's [Five Eyes intelligence group] members. We have heard from the US, including at senior levels, that as a close and trusted partner there should be few impediments" to more technological cooperation.
When RNZ revealed that NZ had joined the National Technology Industrial Base, the government said this was a US decision and it was "not involved".
US power players in NZ
Zinke's barrier-cutting taskforce was set up a month before a US Congressional delegation met the Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers in Auckland in April 2025.
The delegation's leader was Young Kim, who is on Zinke's taskforce.
It came to see how the US could strengthen its "economic and security relationships", according to a briefing released to de Jong.
The talks would "highlight our excellent collaboration in critical sectors such as space and defence".
The US lawmakers - from foreign affairs and defence appropriation committees - also met NZ defence officials who briefed them on Defence Minister Judith Collins' new $12b defence capability plan.
"This meeting is a useful opportunity to reinforce this government's approach to defence, and to highlight potential opportunities for procurement from the US.
"Rep. Young Kim has recently been named as a member of a new Foreign Arms Sales task force, which aims to make it easier for US allies and partners to procure American equipment," the papers added.
Another Congressional delegation that came in February had House Armed Services Committee members on it. It discussed "New Zealand's increased commitments to security in the Indo-Pacific".
Shopping list
Another point of intersect is what the militaries want to buy, and how they want to do that.
The push is towards low-cost technology, such as drones and simpler guided missiles that can be much more rapidly produced, or on software and hardware being able to be more easily transferred between partners.
The US federal defence budget of $1.5 trillion has a strong emphasis on unmanned systems, long-range munitions and rapid production capabilities.
On drones, Hegseth last month announced "sweeping" changes to how the Pentagon buys and fields them, partly to make up for the depleted ability to build warships quickly enough.
"A hybrid fleet would put more hulls in the water by fielding relatively inexpensive large- and medium-sized unmanned maritime systems instead of more expensive surface combatants," said commentary at the US Naval Institute.
The 2025 US budget aligned "funding priorities with the industrial reforms necessary to bring allied technologies to scale", Zinke's taskforce said.
Collins has spoken of New Zealand's need to get strike missiles and many more military drones.
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