Gordon Campbell: On Why An AUKUS Led By Trump Is A Scary Prospect

On the weeknd, Labour figured out that it doesn’t want New Zealand to join Pillar 2 of an AUKUS pact after all. Hmm. This is despite the fact that its then-Defence Minister Andrew Little seemed dead keen on the nuclear-capable military alliance when Labour was last in a position of power to make decisions that had consequences. Given Donald Trump’s fixation with asserting US superiority over China economically and militarily, you would think any pact designed to cow China into submission would prosper during Trump’s second term, to a round of applause from MFAT and the defence boffins.