Jamie Ensor

So we'll have to see down the track.

Well, the negotiations or the discussions are still underway.

When the Prime Minister was speaking about it back in early February, he said that it wasn't a fait accompli, that a deal wasn't a sure thing, that they needed to continue to speak with the US side about how that may look.

And the final documents that I got, which are dated in late January, highlighted that there was still a significant amount of uncertainty about the deal and the potential risks that there could be for New Zealand.

The last update that we had was last week when the Foreign Affairs Minister, Winston Peters, was in Washington, D.C., meeting with U.S.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Marco Rubio put out a post on X after that meeting highlighting that they had spoken about cooperation on critical minerals and Mr Peters afterwards said that they did discuss that potential framework but made clear that it hadn't been finalised.

No, my understanding is he hasn't actually been finally confirmed.

But when he gets here, it will be interesting to hear what he thinks about critical minerals in New Zealand.

He spoke in his hearing about wanting to explore with the Cook Islands for ways to strengthen their relationship on seabed mineral resources.

So he's very much got an active interest in that in New Zealand.

One interesting little tidbit is that the first meeting between the US and New Zealand where a potential deal came up was actually when two US officials were flying, presumably back to the US, but they had just been in the Cook Islands and they were coming through Auckland.

And the briefings that I have don't really expand on why they're in the Cook Islands, but it should be noted that last year, around the time that they were there,

The US and the Cook Islands did sign up an agreement to cooperate more on seabed minerals.

So yeah, that's very much probably going to be a focus for the new ambassador if he's confirmed.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the final status on the club is.

The agreement between the United States and New Zealand would be separate to that.

So individual countries are inking these deals with the US separately to the club, but obviously the club is setting the direction, if you will, around the global supply chains and where to put emphasis on and what is the best way to remove that reliance from China.

Absolutely.

And throughout these negotiations or these discussions between New Zealand and the US, the New Zealand side has very much been consulting or discussing elements of it with mining companies here in New Zealand and relevant stakeholders to find out essentially where the investment would best go.