ANZUS Pact

ANZUS Pact

 officially Pacific Security Treaty

Security pact for the South Pacific, signed in 1951 by Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. (hence its acronym). The U.S. first suggested a pact to Australia in the wake of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and fears of Japanese rearmament. The signatories agreed to maintain a consultative relationship for their collective security. In the 1980s New Zealand refused to let ships carrying nuclear weapons dock at its ports; the U.S., refusing to identify its nuclear-armed ships, suspended its treaty obligations to New Zealand in 1986, and the treaty has since been nonoperative with reference to New Zealand.