Cancel RIMPAC poster

This protest poster was created by Cancel RIMPAC Aotearoa Coalition and pasted up in Wellington streets in August 2020.

RIMPAC – Rim of the Pacific Exercise – is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise held every two years in and around Hawai’i. Because of the impacts of Covid-19, it was held later in August 2020, and was scaled down to a sea-only event.

RIMPAC is hosted by the United States Navy with invitations to Pacific Rim countries to participate, including New Zealand. The aims are to increase operational cooperation, promote stability in the region and the safety of sea lanes. New Zealand attended the first RIMPAC in 1971; was absent as a result of the ANZUS nuclear ships dispute in 1985; and then resumed participation in 2012.

There has been longstanding opposition by peace activists to New Zealand’s participation for several reasons: RIMPAC is a naval war exercise demonstrating US domination and control of the Pacific Ocean; it violates the Indigenous sovereignty of Hawai’i; and the exercise of deadly weapons threatens the environment. 2020 saw the additional risks of operating during a time of pandemic.