Benefits of Security

The first Pentagon chief to visit New Zealand in three decades, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, announced that the Obama administration had modified United States policy so that, in the future, the defense secretary can authorize individual visits by New Zealand naval vessels to Defense Department or Coast Guard facilities. Improving relations between the United States and New Zealand have resulted in the two countries signing new documents to re-establish avenues for dialogue and pledging cooperation on Asia-Pacific security issues. Both nations “are enjoying the benefits” of a growing security partnership, New Zealand’s defense minister, Jonathon Coleman said, without “reverting back to the way things were.” The last defense secretary to visit was Caspar Weinberger in 1982.