This occasional weekend column called ‘Pondering:…’ is where people from within the 'Team of 40,000 Baptists' can share issues they are thinking about in a way that opens up a topic from a particular perspective. Feel free to comment on these pieces on Facebook or our new Mailbox or contribute your own pondering. Opinion pieces are the views of individuals and need to be considered within the context of the diversity of our union of Baptist churches in New Zealand. When commenting or contributing, please follow our Guidelines for articles, opinion pieces and online comments.

In this piece, Julian Doorey challenges NZ Baptists not to limit gospel renewal to our personal lives and local neighbourhoods. What might New Zealand’s foreign policy look like if it, too, was influenced by gospel renewal? Julian and his family previously served in Bangladesh with Arotahi (NZBMS) for 13 years, returning to NZ in 2015. Julian works in international development and attends Caversham Baptist Church in Dunedin. A previous version of this piece was published in the Otago Daily Times.

New Zealand Baptists speak of ‘bringing gospel renew to people and places in our local neighbourhoods.’ I love it, but why limit our focus to the personal and local? What might New Zealand’s foreign policy look like if it, too, was influenced by gospel renewal? As voting citizens, we influence how New Zealand will relate to the global community.

Jesus’ and other Biblical teachings provide the most basic building blocks for how New Zealand might relate globally. Whether it be feeding the hungry (Matt 25), sharing our tunic and food (Luke 3), selling possessions to give to the poor (Matt 19), inviting the poor, crippled, lame and blind to our feast (Luke 14), or seeking justice for the poor (Prov 29), there is a persistent and nagging call to love and assist our world’s poor and needy. Likewise, there is an insistent and firm call for Jesus’ followers to be peacemakers (Matt 5), love and pray for our enemies (Matt 5), live peaceably with all (Rom 12), and harvest peace (James 3). Poverty alleviation and peace-making are closely related – each assisting the other.

Most Christians will agree so far. Theory is easy. Moving into the complex real-world issue under consideration: How should New Zealand respond to China’s increasing involvement with our Pacific Island neighbours? Some say that with China being our largest trading partner, we should not say or do anything which could upset our trading relationship and economic prosperity. An opposing view, concerned about China’s growing political and military influence in our region of the Pacific, prefers that we sign up to the new anti-China AUKUS military alliance with Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It has been amusing to watch New Zealand leaders squirming on the world media stage, relating warmly to China while simultaneously moving towards Western military alliances (even NATO). This dancing on a pinhead has required carefully worded statements to avoid offence to both China and our Western alliance friends.

A contextual factor for New Zealand is our geographical location in the southwest Pacific. Our neighbours, apart from Australia, are small island states, including Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, Solomons, Kiribati, Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu. China’s increasing development assistance to our island neighbours has raised serious concerns. So much so that over the last year, New Zealand, Australia, and the USA have initiated a flurry of diplomatic visits to the islands to somehow counter the emerging Chinese relationships. Perhaps this could be called the ‘Race for the Pacific’.

The Solomon Islands is a good example. China has agreed to provide police training and hopes to construct a new mutually beneficial port facility. Again, it’s been somewhat amusing to hear New Zealand leaders trying to divert the Solomons away from China. And yet, the New Zealand Army has only just completed almost three years of ‘on-location’ support to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force – very similar to the proposed China programme.

There are a number of critical observations to make. The Pacific Island countries are sovereign entities. They can form mutually beneficial development, trade and security arrangements with who they like. In fact, New Zealand has modelled exactly that through high levels of trade with China. Speaking personally with a Tongan NGO development leader earlier this year, he clearly expressed that Tonga can and will choose who they relate to, trade with, and receive assistance from.

Does New Zealand have any right to be concerned about China’s so-called Pacific expansion? China is just as much aPacific-based country as New Zealand and our traditional Western Allies. China, like every other country, has its own interests and priorities to work out on the regional and global stage. Certainly, the US has a very strong trade, diplomatic, and military presence in the Pacific, so why not China? This would seem to be more about the ‘clash of civilisations’ written about by Samuel Huntington (1996).[1]

If New Zealand, for any reason, wants to help reduce China’s presence and influence with our Pacific Island neighbours, it is quite impossible that our minuscule military could have any impact. China’s military is so large, modern military technology so expensive, and New Zealand’s economy so small.

If we wish to encourage Pacific Island countries to remain (or become?) mutually aligned with us in a regional association, our best contribution will be through mutually agreed aid and development funding and skills. This would typically focus on improving education and literacy, economic development and livelihoods, primary healthcare, human rights and gender equality, environmental care, and disaster risk reduction and response. Pacific Island countries also focus on developing agribusiness for domestic consumption and export, as well as clean energy and climate change adaptation. All of this fits very well within the Biblical lens of poverty alleviation and peace-making.

New Zealand is ideally placed geographically to assist with these development activities, but we have a critical and chronic aid-funding problem. New Zealand’s current Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) reached a historical high of $1.4 billion in 2023, equating to 0.34% of Gross National Income (GNI), or 34 cents for every $100 in the NZ economy. Even this was well short of the 0.7% agreed to by the United Nations in 1970. New Zealand’s ODA per capita ranks 26th out of 30 OECD countries. The Development Assistance Countries (DAC) average ODA is currently 0.43% of GNI, equating to 43 cents for every $100. About 50% of New Zealand’s ODA is spent in the Pacific.

However, the increasing ODA path all came to a predictable end with the shift from the left to the right at the New Zealand October 2023 elections, with the final death blow confirmed by the May 2024 budget. Despite an urgent pre-budget call from the New Zealand aid and development collective to increase our ODA to 0.5%, the ODA trajectory is now all downhill, predicted to be only 0.2% of GNI, or 20 cents for every $100 by 2026-27, a 35% decrease. New Zealand’s 2024 ODA budget means we will be spending more on New Zealand pothole repair than assistance for overseas communities fighting poverty, disasters and climate change.

New Zealand ODA budget as % of Gross National Income from 2016 to 2027. ODA budget numbers and chart from Dr Terence Wood, Australian National University Development Policy Centre.

New Zealand has big decisions to make. Will we substantially increase our military budget and join the anti-Chinese AUKUS military alliance, hoping to decrease China’s influence in the Pacific while also hoping China will remain our biggest trading partner? Or, will we reinstate or even increase (imagine that) our overseas development assistance budget to a more humane level, enabling a mutually beneficial aid and development alliance with our Pacific Island neighbours? If we don’t work together with our Pacific Island neighbours, China will.

New Zealand Baptists have a real opportunity to bring gospel renewal to our nation’s foreign policy. Will we support and promote a Biblical focus on poverty alleviation and peace-making in our corner of the Pacific?

Perhaps a better visual metaphor than ‘dancing on a pin’ to describe NZ’s vacillation between China and the predominantly US-driven AUKUS is ‘dancing in the dragons’ jaws’ (Bruce Cockburn album 1979). But, in this case, there are two dragons with very sharp teeth. If only Kiwis could fly.

Are you interested in New Zealand’s foreign policy and response to global issues using a Biblical lens (or strongly disagree with this article)? Feel free to contact Julian [email protected]


Image credits: Dragons created by Julian Doorey using AI MS Designer

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