ANZUS Treaty Overview:
– ANZUS treaty established in 1951 as a mutual security pact between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
– Aimed at collective defense in the Pacific region in response to Cold War tensions.
– Parties committed to consult and develop capabilities to resist attacks and prevent threats to territorial integrity and political independence.
– ANZUS invoked during the Korean War and Vietnam War.
– ANZUS treaty disrupted in 1984 over visiting rights for ships and submarines.
– Treaty now exists separately between Australia and New Zealand, and Australia and the United States.
– Regular AUSMIN meetings between U.S. and Australian defense and foreign affairs officials.
Historical Context and Involvement:
– Australia and New Zealand sought a formal security guarantee post-WWII.
– United States initially hesitant but changed stance due to the communist threat.
– Treaty signed in San Francisco in 1951, entered into force in 1952.
– ANZUS members involved in Korean War, Malayan Emergency, and Vietnam War.
– New Zealand contributed military and non-military aid to the U.S. in Vietnam.
– ANZUS members supported Operation Enduring Freedom and deployed forces in East Timor.
Challenges and Reconciliation:
– Australian reservations about the MX missile testing in 1983.
– New Zealand’s nuclear-free policy strained ANZUS relations in 1985.
– U.S. suspended obligations to New Zealand, leading to a split in the treaty.
– US lifted the ban on New Zealand naval ship visits in 2012.
– Washington Declaration in 2012 aimed at closer defense cooperation.
– Improved relations between the U.S. and New Zealand post-ANZUS split.
Recent Developments and Relations:
– Annual bilateral meetings replaced ANZUS Council meetings.
– US suspended security obligations to New Zealand in 1986.
– Strong support for the alliance in Australia, with the deployment of American troops to Darwin in 2011.
– US and New Zealand signed the Wellington Declaration in 2010 and Washington Declaration in 2012.
– US and Australia deepened defense cooperation, with US Marines training in New Zealand.
Trade and Economic Implications:
– Increasing trade relationship between Australia and China.
– Pressure for a potential free trade agreement with New Zealand from the US in 2006.
– US involvement in negotiations for economic partnerships in the Asia-Pacific region.
– Australia contributes to the National Missile Defense system.
– ANZUS alliance broadened to address modern challenges like terrorism.
The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty) is a 1951 non-binding collective security agreement initially formed as a trilateral agreement between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States; and from 1986 an agreement between New Zealand and Australia, and separately, Australia and the United States, to co-operate on military matters in the Pacific Ocean region, although today the treaty is taken to relate to conflicts worldwide. It provides that an armed attack on any of the three parties would be dangerous to the others, and that each should act to meet the common threat. It set up a committee of foreign ministers that can meet for consultation.
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 ANZUS member states | |
| Abbreviation | ANZUS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1 September 1951 |
| Type | Military alliance |
| Purpose | Collective security |
Region | Pacific Rim |
| Methods | |
Membership |
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The treaty was one of the series that the United States formed in the 1949–1955 era as part of its collective response to the threat of communism during the Cold War. New Zealand was suspended from ANZUS in 1986 as it initiated a nuclear-free zone in its territorial waters. In late 2012, the United States lifted a 26-year-old ban on visits by New Zealand warships to US Department of Defense and US Coast Guard bases around the world. New Zealand maintains a nuclear-free zone as part of its foreign policy and is partially suspended from ANZUS, as the United States maintains an ambiguous policy whether or not the warships carry nuclear weapons and operates numerous nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines; however New Zealand resumed key areas of the ANZUS treaty in 2007.
ANZUS was overshadowed in late 2021 by AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It involves cooperation in nuclear powered submarines that New Zealand did not support. Australia and New Zealand "are poles apart in terms of the way they see the world. ... I think this alliance underlines that they're going in very different directions,” said Geoffrey Miller, an international analyst at the Democracy Project in New Zealand.
