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Viewing cable 06WELLINGTON732, EAP/ANP DIRECTOR MCGANN'S MEETINGS WITH GNZ:

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06WELLINGTON732 2006-09-19 01:26 2011-04-28 00:00 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Wellington
VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHWL #0732/01 2620126
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 190126Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY WELLINGTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3274
INFO RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHJJAA/JICPAC HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L WELLINGTON 000732 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR D (FRITZ), EAP/FO, EAP/RSP, AND EAP/ANP 
NSC FOR VICTOR CHA 
SECDEF FOR OSD/ISD JESSICA POWERS 
PACOM FOR J01E/J2/J233/J5/SJFHQ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/16/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR ETRD NZ US
SUBJECT: EAP/ANP DIRECTOR MCGANN'S MEETINGS WITH GNZ: 
PUTTING MEAT ON THE MATRIX'S BONES 
 
Classified By: DCM David J. Keegan, 
for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C) Summary: During September 13 meetings in Wellington, 
GNZ officials told EAP/ANP Director Steven McGann that PM 
Clark and NZ Ministers support greater US-NZ cooperation. 
McGann and his counterparts agreed that meetings over the 
coming months between both sides' leaders and senior 
officials will help keep things on track.  The Kiwis said PM 
Clark hopes to meet with the President on the margins of 
November's APEC Summit and is  considering a trip to 
Washington next year.  McGann and the officials reviewed ways 
to move forward substantively on the notional matrix of areas 
for cooperation that both sides have developed since July's 
informal meeting in Bangkok.  Emboffs will forward via e-mail 
a matrix reflecting these discussions once it has been 
reviewed with Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) 
officials.  Our preliminary summary of agreed actions begins 
below at paragraph 4.  End Summary. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Setting the Framework With DepDec McKinnon 
------------------------------------------ 
 
2.  (C) Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs John McKinnon 
told EAP/ANP Director Steven McGann that PM Clark and NZ 
Ministers have formally confirmed that they want to improve 
both the content and tone of US-NZ bilateral relations.  They 
hope for a meeting "of some substance" between PM Clark and 
the President at the APEC summit as well as a possible 
Presidential visit to New Zealand after next year's APEC 
meetings in Sydney.  McKinnon said that since Embassy 
Wellington's 2005 calls for renewed attention to the 
relationship and especially after A/S Hill's March visit to 
Wellington, GNZ has recognized the need to bring a greater 
level of trust to the relationship that will enable us to 
build on areas of common interest and more easily deal with 
disagreements.  New Zealand is looking to next year's 
Antarctic anniversary celebrations as a good opportunity to 
demonstrate our cooperation.  They hope that last June's 
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) will pave the 
way for increased economic cooperation even if NZ's desire 
for a bilateral free trade agreement must remain unrealized 
over the shorter term. 
 
3.  (C) McGann said that in addition to leaders' meetings, 
senior working level visits   are also crucial to articulate 
support for the broadening relationship and create the 
impetus for substantive leaders meetings.  He said both sides 
need to ensure our contacts are not defined by good meetings 
in closed rooms and bad sound bites outside.  McGann said he 
was in Wellington to help begin to identify concrete 
bilateral actions both sides can take to implement the draft 
matrix they drew up after informal talks in Bangkok last 
July. He pointed to his previous day's talks with GNZ about 
ways to cooperate around the Pacific Island Forum (septel) as 
a good example of the work that could be done.  McKinnon said 
he is conscious of the need to move the process forward at 
all levels, and is willing to travel to Washington as needed. 
 
 
------------------------------------------ 
The Matrix: Security and other Cooperation 
------------------------------------------ 
 
4.  (C) McGann reviewed the Bangkok draft matrix during a 
session chaired by NZ Ambassador for Counterterrorism Dell 
Higgie that included representatives from the Office of the 
Prime Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), 
NZ Defence Force (NZDF), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Security 
Intelligence Service (SIS), Maritime New Zealand, and Police. 
 The following is the U.S. side's understanding of matrix 
issues discussed and next steps.  Embassy Wellington will 
work with MFAT to incorporate the agreed actions into an 
updated matrix which we will aim to submit to Washington for 
interagency clearance by September 22. 
 
-- Detail of NZ Police official Don Allen to Joint 
Interagency Task Force-West, U.S. Pacific Command:  Allen is 
already in Honolulu.  Both sides will examine how they might 
publicize Allen's assignment as an example of effective 
bilateral cooperation.  Next step: NZ Police to consider how 
it might publicize the assignment. 
 
-- Signing of MOU to exchange terrorist screening information 
as part of HSPD-6:  During July discussions in Washington, 
State's Consular Affairs provided SIS and NZ Emboffs with an 
initial response to technical issues raised by GNZ.  SIS told 
McGann that the draft MOU provided by the U.S. side is a 
government-to-government agreement rather than a 
service-to-service agreement contained in a similar 
US-Australia arrangement.  A government-to-government 
agreement creates complications for the NZ side, both because 
it raises privacy issues that an agreement between services 
would not (SIS is the only GNZ agency exempt from the 
country's privacy laws) and because a bi-government agreement 
would require a more complex GNZ approval process.  As it 
works through MOU issues, GNZ ministries are also meeting 
soon to determine which ministry will house the data gateway, 
after which they will request allocations in next year's 
budget to fund the project.  The Kiwis told McGann that both 
the MOU and bureaucratic issues can move in tandem, 
  which should make it possible to sign the agreement by 
early next year if not by the 
January 1 notional target date. GNZ also asked whether GNZ 
would be able to get substantiating information about any 
hits made after the gateway was in place.  SIS said that 
their understanding was that the Terrorist Screening Center 
(TSC) would make a request for background information with 
the originating USG agency, and that agency would consult 
with its GNZ counterpart.  McGann said US officials were 
still working through whether this would be the case.  Higgie 
said that the agreement will not work for the GNZ side 
without such exchanges. 
 
Next Steps:  U.S. to clarify if MOU must be 
government-to-government, and whether USG agencies will 
consult with NZ counterparts to provide substantiating 
information if the Terrorist Screening Center confirms an NZ 
hit in the system.  NZ to identify a host ministry and budget 
for the gateway, and identify needed procedures to approve 
the agreement. 
 
-- U.S. Expansion of "working holiday" exchange visas for NZ 
and Australian Students from 4 to 12 months:  Next steps: GNZ 
will coordinate with Australia to provide ECA with needed 
information in time for an announcement of the program's 
expansion during the World Youth and Student Travel 
Conference in Melbourne between October 10-15. 
 
-- U.S. Expansion of exchange visa program for primary and 
secondary school teachers:  Next Steps: ECA to provide draft 
letters of agreement to New Zealand and Australia. 
 
-- NZ participation in DPRK "5 plus 5" framework on DPRK 
issues.  GNZ confirmed to McGann that Foreign Minister Peters 
will attend the 5 plus 5 meeting on the margins of UNGA if it 
goes forward. Next steps: MFAT to confirm other GNZ attendees. 
 
-- NZ Joins the IMO "Alameda Group":  Amb. Higgie and Russell 
Kilvington of Maritime New Zealand said they thought GNZ 
would be able to attend the Alameda Group Meeting in Kuala 
Lumpur the week of September 18.  (NB: MFAT has since 
confirmed that NZ's Deputy High Commissioner in Kuala Lumpur, 
Felicity Bloor, and the NZ Defence Attache in K-L, Steve 
Streefkerk, will attend the meeting.) They said that NZ had 
not yet received the regional assistance matrix GNZ would 
need to fill out before the meeting.  Next Steps:  U.S. side 
to provide assistance matrix to Maritime New Zealand and 
MFAT. 
 
-- Staff Level Discussions on 50th Anniversary of U.S.-New 
Zealand Antarctic Cooperation:  At a follow-on meeting on 
September 14 after Director McGann had left New Zealand 
(reported septel), NZ officials told DCM and EAP/ANP Officer 
Alisa Wong that GNZ tentatively agreed to talks in Washington 
October 11-12.  The NZ delegation will probably include Lou 
Sanson, Head of Antarctic New Zealand; MoD's Huntley Wright; 
MFAT's Trevor Hughes; and NZ Ambassador Roy Ferguson.  Next 
Steps: US and NZ to confirm Oct.11-12 Washington meeting. 
 
 
-- Coordination prior to October 27-28 Pacific Island Forum's 
Post-Forum Dialogue (PFD):  McGann noted he had begun 
discussions about US-NZ PFD coordination during a September 
12 with MFAT's Pacific Division Director Heather Riddell 
(septel).  Deputy Director of MFAT America's Division, 
Gabrielle Rush, said MFAT Deputy Director Alan Williams hopes 
 
to travel to Washington shortly after the PFD. Next Steps: 
USG and GNZ to continue to coordinate in lead up to PFD. 
Both sides to exchange information after the PIF/PFD meetings 
during Alan Williams' trip to Washington. 
 
-- Enhanced information exchange on wider Asia/Pacific 
strategic issues.  Next Steps: Both sides agreed to try to 
arrange senior officials' bilaterals on margins of 
multilateral fora, including UNGA and possibly APEC 
 
-- Increased informal consultations between U.S. and NZ 
Embassies in the Asia Pacific Region:  Next steps: US and NZ 
to draft messages to their missions in the region asking them 
to consult on transnational threats affecting the Pacific 
Island Countries and other issues of mutual concern. 
 
-- Informal, working-level consultations between NZ and U.S. 
defense officials:  Ian Hill, NZ's DCM in Washington, told 
McGann that during during the recent trip to Washington of 
Vice Chair of the Defence Force David Bamfield, Assistant 
Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman had endorsed the idea of 
 
SIPDIS 
informal US-NZ exchanges.  As a first step, OSD Desk Officer 
for New Zealand Liz Phu had asked NZ to provide her with a 
matrix of current and planned NZDF activities.  Wayne Higgins 
and Group Captain Gore, NZDF, and MoD's Andrew Weirzbicki 
told McGann that they had already provided a master list of 
NZDF activities to Embassy Wellington DATT Martinez which can 
be used as a basis for the matrix.  They will also add to 
this list planned equipment upgrades and major exercises. 
Higgins said discussions about these activities could provide 
a useful way to identify possible areas for cooperation.  He 
added that it would be helpful for New Zealand to know in 
advance what kinds of joint excercises (including in support 
of peacekeeping operations) were likely to cause difficulty 
for DoD, rather than just discussing each exercise on a 
case-by-case basis.  McGann noted that any U.S. decisions on 
this issue would be made by the Office of the Secretary of 
Defense (OSD).  Next Steps: NZDF and MoD to complete lists of 
current and future activities and provide to OSD, with copies 
to EAP/ANP Director McGann and Embassy Wellington.  GNZ will 
also provide a proposal for advance coordination between U.S. 
and New Zealand officials regarding planned and projected 
joint peacekeeping and stability operations. 
 
-- Expanded bilateral engagement during "Quadrilateral" 
(U.S., NZ, Australia, France) meetings:  Next steps: MoD to 
develop and provide to US side points they would want to see 
discussed if NZ participates in next year's Quad meeting. 
 
-- Expansion of existing relationships into a broader 
counter-terrorism framework with Australia, Canada, and the 
UK:  The Kiwi side told McGann that NZ has robust bilateral 
intelligence relationships with all four parties, and that it 
would make sense to participate (as opposed to observe) in 
5-i's assessment meetings.  Ambassador Higgie said GNZ 
believes the "ball is in the U.S. court" on this.  Next 
Steps: GNZ will provide its proposal on 5-i's participation 
to Dan Coulter at the National Counter-terrorism Center. 
 
-- Extended engagement between the U.S. and New Zealand on 
Maritime Security, Maritime Law Enforcement, and Antarctic 
Search and Rescue operations: McGann noted that during 
meetings in Hawaii the previous week, he had discussed these 
proposals with Admmiral Bryce O'Hara of the Coast Guard and 
JIATF-W.  OSD would need to issue separate waivers for each 
of three proposals.  Next Steps: OSD has invited the Coast 
Guard to submit waivers for these three proposals. 
 
-- Coordination of South Pacific/Southern Ocean air and 
maritime patrols and information sharing:  During the 
discussions, the GNZ side realized that this request might 
already be covered by the items on the Quadrilateral meeting 
and informal mil-mil consultations. Next Step:  GNZ to 
reapproach USG after taking stock of how this would fit into 
the proposals for Quadrilateral and informal military 
discussions. 
 
-------------------------- 
MOVING THE PROCESS FORWARD 
-------------------------- 
 
5. (C) McGann and Higgie agreed that both sides will consider 
a "Bangkok 2" meeting between both ministries to take stock 
of progress.  They said this should take place no later than 
 
March 2007, but agreed that senior level meetings on the 
margins of other multilateral meetings could also provide 
opportunities to assess where things are headed as well as to 
identify other possible areas of cooperation.  The Pacific 
Island Forum meetings in October will probably provide the 
next opportunity for senior official discussions.  Depending 
on the agenda, GNZ may send officials to Nandi to meet with 
A/S Hill and other USG counterparts. 
McCormick