New Zealand's Foreign Minister Winston Peters meets US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington DC on 19 March 2025. Photo: Supplied
Winston Peters is having one-on-one ministerial meetings with his colleagues over the next week to share intelligence from his high-level meetings in Washington DC, ahead of making any public comment.
The Foreign Minister met with United States National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Director of the Office of Foreign Assistance Peter Marocco last week, where trade tariffs, US aid to the Pacific and security and defence spending were widely canvassed.
Peters told RNZ ahead of the engagments that he wanted to hear what the US wanted and expected from its Five Eyes partner, whilst also advocating strongly for New Zealand to be exempt from any tariffs and making clear the need for ongoing US assistance in the Pacific.
Since his return at the weekend Peters has been coy on what was discussed, saying he wanted to discuss it with his Cabinet colleagues first.
Ministers in charge of trade, security and intelligence, and the Prime Minister have received a readout of the US meetings from Peters' office.
Peters confirmed to RNZ he has given the "serious jist" of the meetings to Christopher Luxon but has not fully briefed him in-person as planned because of other engagements.
"We were meant to have a time but it was taken up by an event [on Tuesday night] - the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea was here," Peters told RNZ.
The discussions with Luxon, and Ministers Todd McClay and Judith Collins - who both hold the other relevant portfolios - are ongoing.
"I'm meeting minister after minister because getting them all in the same place at the same time is almost impossible on this issue with the key ministers, so we're just going through them one at a time as we have time."
Collins was on the "same wave length" with Peters before he headed to the US in terms of what level of defence spending was required, he said.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
It comes as the government gets closer to revealing its long-awaited, and pushed out, Defence Capability Plan, which Peters has indicated needs to reach spending of at least 2 percent of GDP.
Peters pointed to the Australian Budget announcement on Tuesday night that it would up its spending to 2.2 percent of GDP - lifting to 2.3 percent by the early 2030s.
He said that was the "kind of background thinking we were apprised of both from Australia and before we went to the United States".
Collins told RNZ information-sharing with Australia on defence was deeply entrenched - both countries have a senior member of their defence force seconded to the other, for example.
"They are the only formal ally we have, and we do share a lot of information with our other friends and like-minded partners, but Australia and New Zealand are pretty much joined at the hip."
She said the Defence Capability Plan would be less about what Australia and the US are calling for and more "about what the Cabinet wants".
"I'm proud of where we've landed and if we can just get into a position where we can announce it I'll be even happier."
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