Winston Peters says his meeting with Marco Rubio was 'productive'. Video / Ryan Bridge TODAY
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says the United States is open to supplying Pacific countries with fuel if its war with Iran continues, but doesn’t expect conditions to be attached to any possible support.
Peters met with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this morning [NZT] in the hoursbefore US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to progress a peace deal.
It comes as fuel stocks tighten across the world as Iran’s blocking of the Strait of Hormuz chokes global oil supply, forcing some countries to employ fuel conservation or rationing methods.
New Zealand is yet to employ such measures, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying the country’s fuel stocks remain “healthy” and there is “no evidence” thus far that New Zealand’s fuel supply lines will be significantly disrupted.
Speaking to the Herald from the US, Peters said the possibility of the US supplying Pacific countries with fuel was raised in his discussion with Rubio and Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau.
“Well, bluntly, getting a tanker, getting fuel, and make sure it gets to New Zealand and onto the Pacific Islands where they might be running out,” he said.
Peters couldn’t estimate when fuel could reach the Pacific from the US, pointing to the varied stock levels across the region.
“We know, for example, what the … Cook Island timeline would be, probably a month.
“There’s others who are probably shorter, probably some may be longer, we just don’t know but the point was we discussed the strategy of having a policy to deal with the crisis.”
“What we have to do is ensure that we have got the utilities signed up for, committed for the job, with a specific purpose, vague as it might be, to service a number of island nations.”
Asked how much fuel the US could provide, Peters replied: “It starts with E and it ends with H; enough.
“We hope that what we’re talking about this morning is not required, but if it is, we believe it was wise to get going now and make plans.
“As for how they play out, we’ll know more as time goes by, but that’s something, as I say, is a contingency should the aspiration for the termination of the war fail.”
Peters is flying back to New Zealand today. Photo / Supplied
Despite Trump’s “America First” approach, Peters believed any support to the Pacific would be “without conditions”.
“I don’t have concerns that it would come with conditions because we’re telling them about our front yard, the Pacific, in a country called New Zealand, and the consequences of an action that we were not engaged in so we do not expect the consequential conditions to be applied in our request.”
Speaking to morning media today, Peters wouldn’t comment on Trump’s deadline, nor could he shed light on when the war might end, except to say he believed it would conclude “much quicker than people think”.
“It’s time to be experienced, it’s time for cool heads and not make a rush to judgment that we will regret,” Peters told RNZ.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
