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New Zealand ‘must never be seen as a proxy’, former PM Helen Clark warns

Helen Clark spent nine years running New Zealand and eight more running the United Nations’ development arm.
Now, the former prime minister has a warning for…

By Samantha Johnson / September 3, 2026

Now, the former prime minister has a warning for the country she once led: do not let the scramble for Pacific security deals crowd out its much-vaunted independent foreign policy tradition.

For decades, New Zealand’s foreign policy has rested on two pillars: independence from superpower blocs and a Pacific kept free of nuclear weapons. Both are now being tested.

A Virginia-class fast-attack submarine docks in Rockingham, Western Australia, in February 2025. Australia is in the market for nuclear submarines under the Aukus pact. Photo: AFP
A Virginia-class fast-attack submarine docks in Rockingham, Western Australia, in February 2025. Australia is in the market for nuclear submarines under the Aukus pact. Photo: AFP

“The Australians being in the market for nuclear submarines isn’t helpful – not that it’s clear they’ll ever get them, but what they’ll get is an American base for nuclear submarines,” said Clark, 76, who was in Singapore to deliver the keynote address at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies’ International Conference on Cohesive Societies Interlude event.

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