ANZUS - Treaty Structure

Treaty Structure

The treaty was previously a full three-way defense pact, but following a dispute between New Zealand and the United States in 1984 over visiting rights for nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships of the US Navy to New Zealand ports, became between Australia and NZ and between the US and NZ. The treaty may have lapsed between the United States and New Zealand, although it remains separately in force between both those countries and Australia. In 2012 the United States opened its ports to New Zealand's military once again.

The Australia–US alliance under the ANZUS Treaty remains in full force. Heads of defense of one or both nations often have joined the annual ministerial meetings, which are supplemented by consultations between the US Combatant Commander Pacific and the Australian Chief of Defence Force. There are also regular civilian and military consultations between the two governments at lower levels.

Annual meetings to discuss ANZUS defense matters take place between the United States Secretary of State and the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs are known by the acronym AUSMIN. The AUSMIN meeting for 2011 took place in San Francisco in September 2011. The 2012 AUSMIN meeting was in Perth, Western Australia in November 2012.

Unlike NATO, ANZUS has no integrated defense structure or dedicated forces. Nevertheless, Australia and the United States conduct a variety of joint activities. These include military exercises ranging from naval and landing exercises at the task-group level to battalion-level special forces training, assigning officers to each other's armed services, and standardising equipment and operational doctrine. The two countries also operate several joint defense facilities in Australia, mainly ground stations for early warning satellites, and signals intelligence gathering in South-East Asia and East Asia as part of the ECHELON network.