MELBOURNE – New Zealand has agreed to officially explore the potential benefits of joining the Aukus pact, the latest sign that Wellington will contribute to the wide-ranging security agreement between Australia, the US and Britain.

Australia will send a team of officials to New Zealand “shortly” to discuss pillar two of Aukus, which relates to cooperation in strategically sensitive areas including quantum computing and artificial intelligence, the foreign affairs and defence minsters of both countries said after meetings in Melbourne on Feb 1. 

“Australian officials have been asked to work together with New Zealand officials to see some of the opportunities that are available in Aukus Two for New Zealand,” New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins said at a joint news conference.

“The opportunities that are open to our space and technology sectors are actually immense.”

The Aukus pact, signed in September 2021, has largely made headlines for the first pillar, in which London and Washington agreed to help Canberra field its own fleet of nuclear-powered submarines by the 2040s.

But New Zealand, which has a nuclear-free policy, is only interested in pillar two. 

Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles said the two countries had agreed on greater defence cooperation, adding they shared a “deeply complex” strategic situation.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had previously expressed interest in exploring the benefits that Aukus pillar two could bring to his country.

During his first visit to Australia as leader in December 2023, Mr Luxon said the security accord was an “important element” to ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

Other nations, including Japan, have also expressed interest in pillar two. BLOOMBERG