The Australia-New Zealand alliance: introduction to the special section

Abstract

It is difficult to think of two countries more closely aligned than Australia and New Zealand. Indeed, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade describes the neighbours as ‘natural allies with a strong trans-Tasman sense of family’ (DFAT Citationn.d.). New Zealand’s Ministry of Defence says that New Zealand has ‘no better friend and no closer ally’ (MoD Citation2016, 32). In his comments following the 2024 Australia-New Zealand Foreign and Defence Ministerial Consultations (ANZMIN), Australian deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles stated that: ‘the character [of the relationship] between Australia and New Zealand is one of family. There’s no country in the world with whom we are closer than New Zealand’ (Marles Citation2024).