During a visit to New Zealand on Thursday 21 July, US Vice President Joe Biden announced that a US naval vessel would attend the RNZN's 75th anniversary in November, marking the first occasion in 33 years that an American warship has visited the country.
In the 1980s NZ introduced its nuclear-free policy and because the US wouldn't confirm or deny if any of its visiting warships carried nuclear weapons, they were banned from its waters.
NZ Prime Minister John Key made the invitation remarking it would appear odd to hold the celebrations for the RNZN hosting all of the nation's allies without including the Americans. He did not indicate what type of ship would be sent but said it would need to comply with NZ law, which requires that he be satisfied that any ship entering the country's waters has no nuclear capabilities.
Relations between the two countries have also improved substantially since the disagreement, with NZ famously left out when the US effectively limited the ANZUS treaty to a bilateral defence pact with Australia.
Greenpeace NZ executive director Dr Russel Norman said: "Thirty years ago New Zealanders drew a line in the sand. We said 'we are nuclear free', and if a country wants to send a warship here it must be free of nuclear weapons and not nuclear powered”.
“The US balked at this, but for 33 years we’ve stood our ground. Now they’re sending a ship here - on our terms."
Norman said an anti nuclear position was as relevant as ever in a world still overshadowed by the potential for nuclear war and the return of the US Navy marked a "historic victory for people power".