Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Helen Clarke: Former Prime Minister on the US reviewing AUKUS

Transcript

Helen Clarke: Former Prime Minister on the US reviewing AUKUS · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: US says it's reviewing the orchest security pack between itself,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: the UK and Australia, all because it wants to make
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: sure the pact aligns with Trump's quote America First Agenda.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: What does that mean for US, Helen Clark. Of course
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: we are positioning on pillar two. Helen Clark, former Prime Minister,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: is with us this morning. Good morning, Good morning, Ryan,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Good to have you with me. Do you think this
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is actually he will Trump, that is, will review this
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: and change anything.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Well he might, Ryan. You see, President Trump has ditched
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: a lot of what President Biden did and he will
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: be looking at the Orcas arrangement with Australia and the
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: United Kingdom as a Biden initiative. So that makes it
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: very vulnerable. Also to note that the Australian Prime Minister
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: and the British Prime Minister who formulated this deal are
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: both long gone as well, Scott Morrison Australia and Boris Johnson.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So it's a new scene all round, and the United
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: States at the moment is quite unpredictable. Take for example, Australia,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: like New Zealand, UK and a couple of others have
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: put these sanctions on the extremist ministers in the Israeli government,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: and the US has come out and criticize that. So
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: it may be sort of formulating a line which says, well,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: we don't want to do business with you anymore Australia
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: in the UK on this because we don't like what
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: you've done on that. So it's very unpredictable.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Does this mean that you might end up actually agreeing
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: with one of Trump's positions?
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Well, I've never thought that Aucus was a sensible thing
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: for New Zealand to have anything to do with, because
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: I have a view we need to keep a much
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: more carefully balanced foreign policy. We have not been quote
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: an ally of the United States in decades since the
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: breach over nuclear weapons, and I don't see the advantage
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of trying to get that status back. We've made our
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: own luck in the world, and quite successfully. This pillar
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: two would just be really dragging you back into an
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: orbit that you don't want to be in.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Should the President change, which will happen at some stage,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: your view on whether we should be an ally of
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: America or not wouldn't change.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. Look, we need to be a
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: friend of America, even in its troubled state. At the moment,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: it has been a great democracy. I hope it continues
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: to be a great democracy. We've got a lot in common,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: we do good business for the Americans, we share a
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: lot of values. Or have the moment that's a bit
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: unprotectable as well. But I would not want to see
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: us back in the position when New Zealand is expected
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: to spend a whole lot more money on defense, expected
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: to follow the US into whatever its strategic adventures. And
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: I'm old enough to remember the Vietnam War in New
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: Zealand going into that for not good reason at all,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: and limping out the other end with Kiwis who died
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: on the battlefield for no good reason. I don't want
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: to see us ever in that position.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Hell In Clark form a Prime Minister, appreciate your time
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this morning. It is sixteen after five year on news
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: talk said be speaking of spending more on defense. The
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: US is pushing for, particularly for Australia and for the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: UK to up there defense spending, and both of them
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: are but they want you to get to three percent
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: of GDP. You know, we just got to two. I
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: said this the other day, and that NATO's asking for
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: five from its members. Thank god we're not a NATO.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, imagine how much we would have to be spending.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: But the UK's agreed to go to two point five
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: by twenty twenty eight, the US wants it to go
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: to three. Australia says it will lift to not to
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the three and a half percent of the US wants.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So basically, the UK and Australia not doing what the
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: US wants on spending. How does that factor into orcus
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: You can imagine what Trump's going to do with this.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: to News Talk sat BE from five am weekdays, or
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio