page_title: New Zealand–United States relations
section_title: Normalcy resumed under George W. Bush
hierarchical_section_title: New Zealand–United States relations / History / Normalcy resumed under George W. Bush
caption_attribution_description: English: President George W. Bush welcomes Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand to the Oval Office Wednesday, March 21, 2007. White House photo by Eric Draper. From the whitehouse website, [1]
context_page_description: New Zealand–United States relations refers to international relations between New Zealand and the United States of America. According to the U.S. State Department, relations as of August 2011 are "the best they have been in decades." New Zealand is a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
  Both the United States and New Zealand share some common ancestry and history. Both countries had native peoples who were at times dispossessed of their land by the process of colonization. Both states have also been part of a Western alliance of states in various wars. Together with three other Anglophone countries, they comprise the Five Eyes espionage and intelligence alliance.
context_section_description: Relations under the George W. Bush administration (2001-2009) improved and became increasingly closer especially after the Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark visited the White House on 22 March 2007. They  ended the difficult relationship that had escalated in 1986.
  Following the 9/11 attacks, Prime Minister Clark expressed condolences with the victims of 9/11 and contributed New Zealand military forces to the US-led War in Afghanistan in October 2001. While New Zealand did not participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, it still contributed a small engineering and support force to assist coalition forces in post-war reconstruction and the provision of humanitarian work. Cables leaked by WikiLeaks in 2010 suggested New Zealand had only done so in order to keep valuable Oil for Food contracts.
  New Zealand was also involved in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which was launched by President Bush on 31 May 2003 as part of a US-led global effort which aimed to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems, and related materials to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern. New Zealand's participation in the PSI led to the improvement of defense ties with the United States, including increased participation in joint military exercises. In 2008, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Prime Minister Helen Clark, and described New Zealand as a "friend and an ally." She also signalled that the US–NZ relationship had moved beyond the ANZUS dispute. The strengthening of US–NZ bilateral relations would be continued by the Barack Obama administration, and Clark's successor: the National Government of John Key.
caption: Bush with Prime Minister Helen Clark during her visit to the White House in 2007
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