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France, Germany, and Finland are among the Western European countries boosting their defense spending after President Trump made clear that we couldn’t simply endlessly sustain a Pax Americana unless our allies began pulling their weight. But, interestingly enough, so is New Zealand.
New Zealand said on Monday it would boost defence spending by NZ$9 billion ($5 billion) over the next four years and aim to nearly double spending as a proportion of GDP to 2% in the next 8 years.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said at the release of the country’s Defence Capability Plan that New Zealand’s defence spending was too low at a time of rapidly increasing global tensions.
New Zealand is not normally anyone’s first thought of a front-line nation. The only real threat in that quarter, unless someone is actually thinking long-term about Muslim countries in Asia (not to mention the insurgent migrants) is China.
Some of the plans are revealing.
Of note in the blueprint is the plan to buy new missile systems “to respond to hostile vessels at a greater range” in the next four years.
There are also indications the defence force will expand its martime strike capabilities to deliver “long range strikes from multiple domains” from 2029 to 2039.
New Zealand had a responsibility to resource the Defence Force to ensure the country’s national interests could be defended, “whether in our near region, in defence of the realm in the South Pacific, in our alliance with Australia or in support of collective security efforts with our partners”.
Setting aside the generic buzzwords, New Zealand wants to upgrade its navy and be ready to fight off naval threats in the region.
And it’s looking at collective security.
This is part of a larger trend in which President Trump has forced allied nations to take a closer look at their value proposition as allies and also be ready to deal with a world in which America isn’t always there to leap to their rescue.
China has a huge naval edge currently.
Yes and that’s on account of American negligence and incompetence. I seriously doubt the Chinks know how to use their Navy but do we? When’s the last time the US went to war at sea? And we obviously can’t build ships the way we did prior to WWII. We cant even build a train line. Other countries just get things done but we waste and endless dithering has been the US way since at least 1972, and the Tricky Dick presidency.
Maybe President Trump will change things. It would be like Canute saying only God could stop the tides, though.
All Nations need to increase their National Defenses and one of the first they can do its to Close their Borders and return all Violent Migrant back to where they came from Build Walls Not Bridges
Tough Love works every time – unless someone is hell bent on self destruction!
One talk I saw the Most Awesome and Beloved President Donald J. Trump give, be it a press conference or a speech, President Trump used the term “tough love” on this very fact – Like a kid that won’t leave home and go out on his or her own to become strong and worthy of standing with the family.
This tough love is for USA’s allies to become strong and stand with USA against all foes – and man o’ man do we have a lot of foes – from the deep state backed myzzlym jihad based in Iran to the deep state itself that has infiltrated the very Halls of Congress and insidiously and pervasive in all 50 states.
How in the world any citizen in USA could not love and stand with MAGA is beyond me – They are absolutely mad with demonic influences to demonic possession
His position on defense spending, as well as getting rid of DEI, are reasons I voted for him, not his position on tariffs. How ignorant are people when it comes to the impacts of tariffs? Allow me to present an actual comment posted in the comments section:
“Tariffs are not intended to raise the prices of imports, nor will they significantly.”
At the corner of Clueless and Unintentionally Funny, “[t]ariffs are not intended to raise the price of imports. Sure! Companies will just keep charging the same price even if it means they lose money on every unit sold. Beam me up, Scotty. There’s no intelligent life down here.
And yet President Trump’s tariffs are successful and America’s foreign adversaries are kissing his ass.
What might be seen from the tariffs is that foreign companies have been raping us harder than we thought and will absorb most of the cost in order to continue to sell their products here and just rape us a little! If all this results in FAIR TRADE and more US Manufacturing then we’ll all win – especially the young people needed good paying jobs!