Australia and New Zealand plan to ratchet up defence co-operation after bilateral talks as one side of Kiwi politics expresses concerns about Australia's military pact AUKUS.
Defence and foreign ministers from both sides of the Tasman met in Auckland on Friday and released new principles to underpin the formal alliance.
They included a pledge to increase combined operations, embed units in each others' defence forces and share complementary strategies.
"We deeply value the New Zealand Defence Force as we deeply value New Zealand and we deeply value our relationship with New Zealand," Australia Defence Minister Richard Marles said.
The two navies staged a joint sail earlier in 2024 which Mr Marles said was the first in many years.
The two defence forces are also contributing troops and know-how to a regional response group.
"This is really groundbreaking in terms of building a Pacific defence family in a real and operational sense, which makes a difference in terms of responding to natural disasters," Mr Marles said.
NZ Defence Minister Judith Collins shared Mr Marles' enthusiasm.
"We are so much better when we are working together," she said.
"Everything that we're doing, we're looking to see how we can be more interoperable with Australia.
"That's why earlier this year, when Richard and I met and decided that we should have something like an ANZAC force, that is exactly what we've been doing this year - making that a reality much more interoperability."
Despite the closer relations, the spectre of AUKUS in proudly nuclear-free New Zealand looms over the relationship.
Anti-nuclear sentiments have grown in NZ since the 1950s, with a protest movement over nuclear testing in the Pacific.
In 1984, the Labour party came to power with a pledge to ban visits from nuclear-powered warships - a promise that would see it ejected from trilateral defence pact ANZUS.
In their tradition of thumbing one's nose to a bigger power, the Labour party announced this week it would not seek any part in AUKUS, Australia's deal with the US and UK under which it will obtain nuclear-powered submarines.
"Our country has a fiercely independent foreign policy, and a government I lead will not join pillars one or two of AUKUS," Labour leader Chris Hipkins told his party conference.
"Labour is deeply concerned about how much time and effort this government has spent getting closer to the US over the past year when we spent six years in government diversifying New Zealand's trade interests and staunchly defending our right to be independent."
NZ Prime Minister Chris Luxon attacked that call, saying Mr Hipkins was "putting party and politics ahead of country".
It is NZ's biggest foreign policy split between the major parties in decades.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also indirectly attacked that policy shift in an interview with TVNZ.
"Those are decisions for New Zealand. Each country responds in the way it sees fit," she said.
"The broader point I'd make is that ... we know the Pacific is a much more contested area strategically than it has been for a very, very long time, and you can either be an observer of that reshaping, or you can be a participant.
"Australia, wants to be part of responding to that reshaping, and we certainly welcome the New Zealand government's engagement."
