By JOHN ARMSTRONG political editor
American officials privately warned the Government that the way it responded to the September 11 terrorist attacks would be treated as a "touchstone" for future relations between the two countries.
The blunt advice from the State Department is noted in a previously confidential report prepared by the Prime Minister for the cabinet in the days immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Helen Clark's report and a subsequent cabinet minute, which have now been released to the Herald under the Official Information Act, emphasised that "countries' responses to requests for cooperation in combating terrorism will be seen by the United States as a touchstone for bilateral relationships".
Key parts of the Prime Minister's report covering the implications of the terrorist attacks have been withheld from release to avoid prejudicing New Zealand's international relations.
However, the cabinet accepted the Prime Minister's recommendation and quickly indicated military support for President George W. Bush's "war on terrorism" in the form of Special Air Service troops, even though the US had not yet asked for New Zealand help.
The offer of SAS troops prompted a rapid warming in relations between the Bush Administration and the Labour-Alliance Coalition, with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage recording his appreciation of New Zealand's readiness to contribute military personnel when he met Foreign Minister Phil Goff in late September.
That was followed by informal talks between President Bush and the Prime Minister at the Apec summit in Shanghai in October.
Helen Clark is now punting on a quick start to negotiation of a free trade agreement between Washington and Wellington as one major spin-off of the diplomacy surrounding the war on terrorism.
To maintain the momentum, she is trying to schedule a formal White House meeting with President Bush, possibly as early as next month.
The documents shed no light on why Alliance ministers accepted the troop deployment, given the unhappiness of party activists who now argue that the SAS offer has paved the way for a free trade agreement which the Alliance as a whole has always opposed.
But the papers show that in the immediate aftermath of September 11 the Prime Minister was urging cabinet colleagues to contemplate a role for the SAS, who are now believed to be in Afghanistan carrying out covert operations.
"We will want to contribute in any way we can to specific requests for cooperation," she stated in her report prepared for the September 17 cabinet meeting, the first after the attacks on New York and Washington.
"Intense diplomatic activity has taken place at the highest levels to garner international support for a new global effort to combat terrorism.
"The Americans have made it plain that they are looking at this whole issue from one perspective: that the terrorist attacks are an act of war and accordingly that countries are either 'in or out' of a concerted and effective international response."
Her report also confirmed that the Security Intelligence Service and Government Communications Security Bureau were in close touch with their international counterparts in the wake of the attacks.
The report also canvassed the upgrading of counter-terrorism measures, anti-terrorism laws, security at the American and Israeli Embassies in Wellington and passenger screening for domestic air travel.
Meanwhile, NZPA yesterday reported that New Zealand's three-month contribution to the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan is still waiting for the call to duty a week after the troops had expected to leave Auckland.
Twenty-five peacekeepers have been ready to go since they were booked on a flight to London on December 30.
They are to join a British force stationed with the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.
Story archives:
Links: War against terrorism
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Blunt US hint led to offer of troops
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