Sir Don McKinnon: Former Foreign Minister on the new weapons deal with the UK

A former Foreign Minister says New Zealand's new weapons deal with the UK reflects a strong relationship. 

Christopher Luxon and Sir Keir Starmer have met in the UK overnight. 

They've announced a deal worth more than $60 million for New Zealand-made drones and discussed the war in Ukraine. 

Sir Don McKinnon told Mike Hosking it's another step in joint support for the war-torn country. 

He says New Zealand and the UK have always been closely linked, but there's a long way to go before the war can be stopped. 

Luxon and Starmer are also pushing for even closer military ties, coming after the Government announced it's boosting military spending to hit more than 2% of GDP. 

McKinnon told Hosking it'll help New Zealand's international reputation. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so our Prime Minister has met with the British
counterpart Downing Street overnight they've signed the sixty seven million
dollar weapons deal while also agreeing to extend our involvement
in the training program for Ukraine troops.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
We are a small country, We are a long long
way away from Ukraine or from the UK and we
have limited resources. But we are here because you are
fighting for values that we believe deeply in and those
values are the sovereignty of nation states. Those values are
the upholding the international rules based system. It's about democratic

(00:29):
ideals and liberal democracy values that we as a small
country in particular, have huge appreciation for.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now former Foreign Minister and Secretary General of the Commonwealth,
So DONM kinnon's with the Sudan Morning to you.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
How much of this is optics versus a growing tangible
closeness between us in Britain.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, there's always been a pretty close linkage, particularly at
the military level, and that goes back more than one
hundred years. But the overall sense of hire when the
invasion took place, New Zealand stood up pretty firmly for Ukraine.
I believe still does. But there's a long way to
go before we find see any kind of settlement there.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Well, I was going to say, that's my next question.
All they're announcing more money, more weaponry, more support indicates
what happened to the peace deal? Is this not ending
anytime soon?

Speaker 3 (01:18):
Well? I think a lot. We're waiting on Washington, DC there,
and that is becoming very problematical, particularly for European powers,
the United States, you know, having absolutely dominated the dominated
NATO for years now, having hesitancy about even will they
remain in play in relation to this particular conflict. Nevertheless,

(01:41):
no question, European powers are all building up their defenses,
all building up their military, and there won't be a
giveaway here very rapidly.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Do you think what we announced, I mean, this announcement's
one thing, But what we announced the defense the other day,
the nine billion of fresh spending till twelve billion in total.
Will that had been registered in places like Britain.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Oh, I'm sure it would have been. I mean, they
would have gone through their notes about well, yes, okay,
New Zealand primes is coming, what are they doing? And
they would be immediately updated on that fact and what
we have done here by committing ourselves to a much
higher level of military spending actually gives us far more
clout in the Pacific, which has been diminishing in recent years.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
The I mean, you've been around a long time to dawn,
seen a lot of things. What do you make of
the world at the moment? And know it's a very
broad based question, but I mean, what do you think.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
It's very uncertain, it's very messy, it's very there are
problems everywhere, and when you get big problems like what
is happening in Ukraine, like what is happening in the
Middle East, it's easy for other small skirmishes to go
unnoticed and people to take advantage of the bigger ones
to do their own sort of boundary realignment and things

(02:55):
like that. And you're seeing that in many parts of
the world, particularly in Africa.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Your insights to Don mckinnam, former Foreign Minister of course
Sir Secretary General of the Commonwealth. For more from the
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