The secret ‘matrix’ meeting that broke the ice between NZ and US
The gathering of defence, state department, coastguard, law enforcement and foreign affairs officials, held in secret at the New Zealand embassy early in 2006, came up with a plan called the matrix process to see whether both countries might be able to cooperate in more areas.
Since that meeting and others in Washington and Wellington, New Zealand defence personnel have served on US hospital ship Peleliu; a four-star general at first refused Pentagon permission to attend a conference in New Zealand has been allowed to make the trip; New Zealand SAS forces in Afghanistan have received a rare presidential citation; Prime Minister Helen Clark returned to the White House for a second time; and the waiver system that acted as a barrier to military training and exercises between the two countries for more than 20 years has been streamlined.
A retiring US defence attache and former nuclear submarine captain, Rick Martinez, has spoken about the gathering, revealing that it helped to kick off the new way of tackling issues, including cooperation in the Pacific.
Though both countries have agreed their long-standing differences over New Zealands anti-nuclear legislation remain, the meeting came as they looked for ways to focus on other areas where they could agree.
Captain Martinez, who has served at the US embassy in Wellington for the past four years, was among the group of about 20 officials who met in Bangkok.
He said their political masters in Washington and Wellington had been fully briefed on the meeting and were supportive of it.
But it appears to have been organised quickly and his first notification of it was when a US embassy staff member in Wellington phoned him when he was already in Bangkok to advise that she was on her way over.
It was just a big session, where we said, `Okay, weve never done anything like this, but if were going to move forward in the relationship, what steps need to be taken on both sides?
So we called it the matrix process. Because it was just a table of events that needed to happen on both sides to start this process rolling.
US officials emphasised yesterday that the matrix process was a historical reference, but said both countries were continuing to work together and look for ways to expand their cooperation.
Captain Martinez said that, when he arrived in Wellington in 2004, he was surprised to find the anti-nuclear issue was apparently still too raw for either country to put it to one side.
It seemed that the relationship had essentially been stagnant for the last 20 years.
It also took a personal toll. He removed his daughters from a Wellington school because of anti-American sentiment.
But there had been a significant shift in attitudes on both sides, which had begun building momentum even before Bangkok.
I think the conditions for change were already in the air … It seemed like everyone wanted to move the relationship forward.
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Saturday, April 12th, 2008 at 6:59 pm under