From Our Leader Page-Indian Newslink Digital Edition August 15, 2022
Auckland, August 18, 2022
We have often said that India is a shining example of exemplary diplomacy. While the country steadfastly follows the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of any country, it does not allow outsiders to influence their thoughts and ideologies within its sovereignty.
The New Zealand government also follows the same principle. However, the country is not immune to foreign interference. Which is why a Special Division has been established within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with the Prime Minister as the Chairperson and the Foreign Minister as the Deputy Chairperson.
Guidelines and Warnings
Last year, based on the information provided by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), the government issued guidelines that advised diplomats and other officials with contacts with foreign governments and personnel (both at home and overseas) how to stay out of trouble. Politicians and academics were also warned to guard against foreign agents seeking to exploit their connections and research, as New Zealand’s intelligence agencies ramped up their campaign against foreign interference.
The guidelines, issued in the form of a booklet, do not mention any country as a target.
However, one of the areas that the Service had mentioned was agencies and people seeking to control or intimidate communities (especially those that whakapapa to foreign states).
The guidance warns that “not every foreign state actor who seeks to engage with you will have benign intentions,” and has named diplomats, academics, lobbyists and journalists as among the potential proxies for foreign interference and espionage.
Undue influence and leverage
Foreign state actors would be “interested in your ability to steer policy-making, especially when it may relate to their country,” and value inside knowledge “such as points of tension, split opinions, or off-the-record views held by fellow politicians or personal contacts.”
Politicians are cautioned about efforts “to gain undue influence and leverage” over them, with the document warns, “Engaging in inappropriate activities, even if they are not illegal in New Zealand, could leave you vulnerable to coercion.”
While foreign intelligence services usually lead and carry out espionage and foreign interference, they may also use a range of other actors to help them. These other actors include diplomats, academics, military personnel, media organisations, community organisations, businesspeople,
online actors, proxies.
The Australian experience
Mike Burgess, Head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said that espionage and foreign interference have supplanted terrorism as his country’s principal security concern.
He said that his Agency recently thwarted an attempt by a person nicknamed “the puppeteer,” working on behalf of a foreign government, to interfere in an Australian election. Using an offshore account, the puppeteer planned to support candidates who either backed the interests of the foreign government or who were deemed vulnerable to inducements and cultivation. “It was like a foreign-interference start-up,” he said.
In a Research Paper published in 2017, S R Subramanian, Assistant Professor at the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, said that there have been an increasing number of challenges to the object and purpose of the Vienna Conventions, as diplomats, their family, and consular officials have increasingly paid scant respect for laws and regulations of the receiving states.
He said that they frequently abused their immunities and privileges, necessitating the invocation of local jurisdiction by the receiving state.
“ At the same time, it is equally true that at times, receiving states have rejected claims of diplomatic immunity on flimsy grounds, including the assertion that such immunity is available only for ‘official acts.’ It is submitted that the abuse of privileges and immunities by diplomats, as well as by the states that receive them, constitute one of the major challenges to the continued success of the Vienna Conventions,” he said.
If you have reason to believe that you are being threatened, please contact the Police or write to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
