NZ Defense Minister: Port Security Initiative is a good thing

Comments found here:

First, all PSI participants are committed to ensuring that the provisions of the initiative are totally compatible with international law.

The PSI’s inaugural statement of principles spells this out. For our part, the New Zealand Government is entirely confident that the PSI is fully consistent with all the relevant international and domestic provisions.

We would not support the initiative unless this was the case. The PSI is a forum for fully using the existing legal frameworks at our disposal and for discussing areas where these might be improved and strengthened.

Such discussion has resulted, for instance, in the adoption of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts at Sea Protocols.

Second, the membership of the PSI does need to be larger. In New Zealand we are working with our Asia-Pacific PSI colleagues to ensure the initiative is as strong and as effective as possible in this part of the world. This will be the central purpose of the Asia-Pacific Outreach Forum we will host after this meeting.

We can be more effective still if other Asia Pacific countries join us. The more countries that are involved, the less the risk of any one of us unwittingly helping a proliferator. And the greater the shared benefits of the "network of cooperation" that I mentioned earlier.