By ANDREW TILGHMAN
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel hosted his counterpart from New Zealand for lunch at the Pentagon Monday, but there was no sign of progress on lifting the South Pacific nation’s 26-year-old ban on docking US Navy aircraft carriers and other warships.
But Hagel announced a new agreement that will bring New Zealand into the annual Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or RIMPAC, and formally invited New Zealand ships to dock alongside US ships at Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Hagel did not mention the Cold War-era ban on US Navy ships visiting New Zealand ports during the joint press briefing that followed his lunch with Minister of Defense Jonathan Coleman.
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