Japan and New Zealand have reaffirmed the importance of continued cooperation on security and Pacific Islands issues after a meeting in Tokyo on 19 October.
Japan’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Iwao Horii, received Carolyn Jane Weatherall Schwalger, New Zealand’s ambassador to Japan, for a courtesy call beginning at 3.45pm. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes. Horii congratulated Schwalger on her appointment, while the two sides set out their respective priorities for the relationship.
Horii said Japan wanted to work closely with New Zealand towards the updated Free and Open Indo-Pacific initiative. Schwalger said she wanted to further strengthen the countries’ Strategic Cooperative Partnership as they approach the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2027.
The discussion also covered security and the situation in the Pacific Islands region. Japan and New Zealand confirmed the importance of continuing cooperation across a wide range of areas. The account of the meeting did not announce a new treaty, funding commitment, military exercise or other specific joint project. Its immediate outcome was a shared intention to keep the existing relationship active across those fields.
Existing security arrangements
The latest contact comes after several formal steps in the partnership. In December 2025, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins signed an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement and an Information Security Agreement in Tokyo. After the signing, the two countries agreed on the importance of further strengthening security and defence cooperation as partners pursuing a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
Those arrangements formed part of the context for a foreign ministers’ meeting in July 2026. Motegi met New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters in Japan, where both ministers referred to the recently signed Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement and the entry into force of the Information Security Agreement. They confirmed a commitment to stronger cooperation, including in security, and discussed the wider Indo-Pacific, Pacific Island countries and the region.
The two agreements followed a longer process. Formal negotiations on the Information Security Agreement began in April 2022. In June 2024, Japan and New Zealand welcomed agreement in principle on that arrangement and said they would strengthen economic-security cooperation, including work on economic coercion and supply-chain resilience. In July 2025, the countries decided to begin negotiations towards the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement. Those dated steps show that the security relationship did not begin with this month’s meeting.
The October meeting did not replace those arrangements or set out additional terms for them. Instead, it brought the conversation back to the same broad themes: the bilateral partnership, regional security and engagement with Pacific Island countries. That distinction matters because the latest statement is a reaffirmation of cooperation rather than an announcement of a new defence accord.
Anniversary ahead
Japan and New Zealand established diplomatic relations in 1952. Their foreign ministers issued a joint statement on a Strategic Cooperative Partnership in 2013, creating the framework repeatedly referenced in more recent exchanges. The approach has since included economic, security, defence and people-to-people cooperation, alongside work on regional and international issues.
With the 75th anniversary due in 2027, both countries have signalled that the partnership remains an active part of their regional diplomacy. The Tokyo meeting gives that message a current official marker: the two governments have again placed security and the Pacific Islands region among the subjects on which they intend to continue working together. No further timetable or set of measures was disclosed.
