New Zealand’s Interests in the ADMM-Plus: Multilateralism, Practical Cooperation, and a Rules-Based Regional Order

New Zealand was an enthusiastic founding member of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) when it was established in 2010 and remains a strong supporter of the group. The stability and prosperity of East Asia is a paramount national interest for New Zealand, as a small, remote state dependent on seaborne international trade, and the ADMM-Plus is seen as making a useful contribution to promoting regional peace and security.

The value of the ADMM-Plus for New Zealand needs to be seen in the wider context of the country’s foreign policy. Over the last few decades, the Asia-Pacific has become the most important destination for New Zealand’s exports. The region includes the country’s two largest markets for goods (China and Australia) and accounts for 70% of its total trade. Most exports travel by sea, with more than half passing through the disputed waters of the South China Sea. This means that despite its remoteness, New Zealand has a vital interest in the peace and stability of the region and the maintenance of a rules-based international order, including key norms such as freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes. It wants to play an active and constructive role in the region’s security, albeit one commensurate with its size.

Like many small states, New Zealand is an instinctive multilateralist—a “compulsive joiner” in the words of one analyst—and over the last few decades has sought membership in all of Asia’s nascent political-security arrangements, including the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum. Like these groups, the ADMM-Plus provides New Zealand with a seat at the table and an opportunity to raise issues and share perspectives with ministers and officials from key partner countries. In this sense, the creation of the ADMM-Plus filled a gap in the regional architecture by providing a way for defense ministers, officials, and military officers to work together, alongside foreign ministry–led interactions in the EAS and ARF.

This essay reviews the ADMM-Plus from New Zealand’s perspective. The first section discusses the strengths of the ADMM-Plus and its contribution to regional security. The essay then briefly notes some of the weaknesses and challenges that the ADMM-Plus faces, before finally considering the group in the context of New Zealand’s wider defense relations.

The Strengths of the ADMM-Plus

From New Zealand’s perspective, a key strength of the ADMM-Plus is its inclusive but manageable membership. The group features all the key players involved in Asia-Pacific regional security and as such provides a vehicle to encourage dialogue, generate trust, and build confidence in an era of growing rivalry and tension. Crucially, it provides a forum for the U.S. and Chinese militaries to work together—“to get used to being in common space”—even if so far cooperation has primarily been on softer security issues such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) and military medicine.¹ At the same time, the eighteen-nation membership is not as large and unwieldy as the ARF, where making progress has often been hostage to the lowest common denominator.

A second strength that New Zealand defense officials point to is the ADMM-Plus’s emphasis on practical cooperation rather than simply dialogue. Tabletop and field exercises are believed to promote a sense of familiarity among regional militaries and also help facilitate a measure of interoperability. The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has been an enthusiastic participant in the growing number of ADMM-Plus exercises. New Zealand’s participation in a humanitarian assistance and military medicine exercise in Brunei in 2013 involved a visit by the commander of its joint forces. NZDF personnel, including a counterterrorism team and a P-3K aircraft, also took part in the recent maritime security and counterterrorism exercise held in Brunei and Singapore in May 2016.² New Zealand wants to contribute further to the growing ADMM-Plus exercise program. It will host a maritime...