Background 

ASEAN and New Zealand’s relations date back to the early 1950’s. With the establishment of the New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) in 2002, the Pacific region and the Greater Mekong Sub-region became the top priority regions for the provision of development assistance from New Zealand.

In 30 November 2004, ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand celebrated its 30th anniversary commemorative summit in Vientiane, Laos where the Leaders of ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand gave the directive to promote peace and stability, enhance human resource development initiatives and strengthen people links and programs. To carry out the directive, New Zealand presented a draft framework for cooperation to guide dialogue relations until 2010 at the 17th ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue Meeting in the Philippines in May 2006. The ASEAN-New Zealand Framework for Cooperation was adopted last year in Malaysia at the ASEAN’s Post Ministerial Conference.

ASEAN-New Zealand Framework for Cooperation 2006-2010

The ASEAN-New Zealand Framework for Cooperation is committed to the goal of achieving an ASEAN Community by the year 2020 and outlines ideas for closer cooperation in line with the ASEAN Community’s three pillars of cooperation, i.e., economic, political security and functional cooperation as enunciated in the Vientiane Action Plan. 

The dialogue relations will work on a plan of action to implement the ASEAN-New Zealand Joint Declaration to Combat International Terrorism in support of ASEAN’s realization of an ASEAN Security Community. New Zealand is exploring possible collaboration with regional counter terrorism centres such as the Southeast Asia Center for Counter Terrorism (SEARCCT) in Kuala Lumpur, International Law Enforcement Agency (ILEA) in Bangkok and Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation (JCLEC). Funding has been approved for a training course on counter-terrorism at JCLEC involving 30 POLRI officials, counter-terrorism prosecutors and judges, co-sponsored by the US and Canada to be held on April 2008. New Zealand has also been very active in programs under the ASEAN Regional Forum such as the ISG in Batam, Indonesia in November 2006, the 2nd EEG Meeting in Manila on February 2006 and the ISG in Helsinki in late March 2006. 

ASEAN-Australia/New Zealand FTA negotiations have seen steady progress in the area of trade in goods, services and investment. Parties to the negotiations have likewise agreed in principle to an Economic Cooperation Chapter in the FTA. New Zealand hosted the Asia Business Summit called Action Asia in July 2007 to enhance business and trade links with the region

Ongoing projects till 2007 and 2008 for CLMV countries in the areas of capacity building in metrology, phytosanitary measures, food safety and quality, SMEs, improvement of customs procedures and training on best practices in rules of origin for traded goods. 

New Zealand’s assistance to building an ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community has focused on academic, media and youth exchanges, conduct of conferences and pro-poor tourism workshops to enhance ASEAN member Countries and New Zealand’s knowledge and understanding of their respective trade and political environments. These were implemented through the New Zealand’s Seriously Asia Programme and the New Zealand Asia Foundation. New Zealand is actively looking for proposals from ASEAN in the areas of disaster mitigation and management, English language training, early childhood education, animal disease control and prevention and eco-tourism collaboration. 


Political and Security Cooperation

    New Zealand has been actively participating in various ASEAN meetings, namely the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the Post Ministerial Conference (PMC) 10+1 and 10+10, the ASEAN-New Zealand Dialogue and the meetings of the ASEAN-New Zealand Joint Management Committee (JMC). The ASEAN-Wellington Committee also assists in conducting and maintaining the dialogue between ASEAN and New Zealand. 

    ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand signed the Joint Declaration of the Leaders of Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit on 30 November 2004 in Vientiane, to reflect the parties’ commitment to strengthen political and security cooperation, enhance financial links, technical cooperation and exchange of visits. The Summit acknowledged that terrorism remains a threat to mankind and agreed to strengthen the fight against the scourge through the Joint Declaration that was signed. Realising the need to respond to the challenges of terrorism, ASEAN and New Zealand signed the ASEAN-New Zealand Joint Declaration to Combat International Terrorism on 29 July 2005 in Vientiane and agreed that both sides would develop a work programme to implement the declaration in a substantive way.

     As a follow-up to the Leaders’ view at the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit in November 2004 in Vientiane on the importance of the accession by Australia and New Zealand to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in Southeast Asia in the near future to build confidence in the relations between ASEAN and the two Dialogue Partners, New Zealand acceded to the TAC on 28 July 2005 in Vientiane.

Economic Cooperation

    Trade and economic issues figure prominently in the ASEAN-New Zealand dialogue relations. The impetus of the dialogue relations between ASEAN and New Zealand has been ASEAN's thrust towards economic development. ASEAN's main exports to New Zealand are machinery parts, electrical appliances and mineral products while New Zealand's major exports to ASEAN are livestock, pulp and paper products. 

     Positive growth trends were recorded in ASEAN’s trade with New Zealand over the last five years (FY2000-FY2004). The growth for ASEAN’s exports and imports with New Zealand reached 77.74% and 30.64% respectively. In FY2004 ASEAN’s exports and imports with New Zealand were recorded at US$2 billion and US$1.35 billion, respectively.

     ASEAN cooperation with New Zealand is also proceeding within the framework of a closer economic partnership (CEP) between AFTA and the Closer Economic Relations (CER) of Australia and New Zealand. The closer economic partnership aims to promote greater trade and investment flows between the two sides and to narrow the development gap between them.

    In 1995, ASEAN and CER Trade and Economic Ministers agreed to establish a dialogue to facilitate trade and investment linkages between the two regions. ASEAN and CER Ministers, at their meeting in September 1996, signed an MOU to promote cooperation on standards and conformance. Other areas of joint activity include customs facilitation, information exchange and human resources development. Informal consultations between the ASEAN Economic Ministers and Ministers from the CER countries were also held to improve two way trade and investments. 

     At the Fifth AEM-CER Consultations in Chiang Mai, Thailand in October 2000, the Ministers agreed to work towards a Closer Economic Partnership (CEP) which takes into account relevant recommendations of the Angkor Agenda: Report of the High Level Task Force on the Feasibility of an AFTA-CER Free Trade Area and other issues relevant to the closer integration of ASEAN-CER countries.

     At the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Commemorative Summit on 30th November 2004 in Vientiane, the Leaders agreed to further enhance the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand economic partnerships by launching negotiations on an FTA. They also agreed to commence negotiations on an ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand FTA in early 2005, to be completed within two years, on the basis of the time frames and the guiding principles agreed by the Economic Ministers of ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand. The FTA will be fully implemented within 10 years, and the negotiations will commence in early 2005 and be completed by 2007. 

    The ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Trade Negotiating Committee (AANZTNC) has been established by SEOM-CER Consultations to undertake negotiations on the AANZFTA. The first meeting of the AANZTNC took place on 20 March 2005 in Makati City, Philippines, to discuss certain aspects of the AANZFTA in order to facilitate the negotiations. 


Functional Cooperation

   The New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID) was established on 1 July 2002 to provide small scale technical and capacity building assistance to ASEAN through the Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI). NZAID intervention’s are in the areas of SPS, customs, SME Development, metrology and standards. 

   During the ASEAN-Australia and New Zealand Commemorative Summit, the Leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation in human resource development through promoting further education sector linkages through student and youth exchanges and scholarships as well as in preventing and combating the spread of communicable diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS and Avian flu.