US lifts ban on N Zealand naval ships

By AFP September 21, 2012 - Updated 929 PKT

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AUCKLAND: The United States has lifted a ban that prevented New Zealand naval ships visiting US ports or bases since the 1980s, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday, hailing a "new era" in relations. The policy change, part of efforts to bolster security ties, will "allow the US Secretary of Defense to authorise individual visits to Department of Defense or Coast Guard facilities in the United States and around the world," he said. "I suspect that soon we'll be able to see one of those ships in our ports," he added, when asked when New Zealand vessels would stop in the US. In a joint news conference with his New Zealand counterpart Jonathan Coleman, the Pentagon chief also announced that restrictions on meetings between defence officials and military exercises had also been rescinded. "These changes I think are important and are in the interests of both our nations," he said. The announcement underscored improving security ties between the two countries since a chill during the Cold War, when New Zealand imposed a ban on any visits by US nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships to its ports.