The Soviets also traded Lada cars for New Zealand dairy products (mainly butter) [1], and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia apparently even offered MiG fighter jets, a nuclear submarine, and tanks in an attempt to pay its $200mm debt it owed the New Zealand Dairy Board [2], which is particularly ironic as New Zealand was at the time (and still is) a nuclear free nation.
Yeah, I was going to mention that. My dad worked for the NZ Dairy Corporation (which later merged with Kiwi Dairy to become the conglomerate known as Fonterra) at the time, and they had warehouses full of cars that they had no idea what to do with.
In New Zealand territories all nuclear weapons are banned, which is why the US navy is banned from operating in NZ waters as they don't disclose what ships are nuclear powered or carrying weapons.
Also, what's a dairy company going to do with fighters? At least they could sell cars and sell / give tractors to their farmers.
> US navy is banned from operating in NZ waters as they don't disclose what ships are nuclear powered or carrying weapons
One does not lead to the other. All of the US submarines and air craft carriers are nuclear powered (and no other ships). None of the aircraft carriers have nuclear weapons, and only the SSBN submarines can carry nuclear weapons on board. If your second statement is true (I don't know), then it is likely that NZ also is banning any nuclear powered ships; not just those with nuclear weapons.
It is a ban on nuclear propulsion as well as weapons, so nuclear powered submarines and carriers are banned. There was a bit of controversy a few years ago as well, when the NZ government was considering utilising a Russian nuclear powered icebreaker in Antarctica. No US Navy ship entered New Zealand waters for 33 years from 1984, the US Coast Guard did, however.
The ban on US Navy vessels stemmed from the fact that technically, any US Navy ship could carry nuclear weapons, and the USA would neither confirm nor deny if a particular ship had nuclear weapons. It was a bit of a hangover from the Cold War. The USA wasn't very happy at all in 1984 when NZ declared itself nuclear free.
Not all US Navy ships are banned in NZ waters now, a US Navy destroyer (USS Sampson) visited in 2016 for the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th birthday, and ended up helping in disaster recovery when the magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura earthquake happened at the same time, alongside the Canadian Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Japanese Navy. To reciprocate the favour, the frigate HMNZS Te Kaha joined the Nimitz carrier group to replace the USS Fitzgerald after it collided with a container ship.
Military relations with the USA have improved markedly in the past decade. Due to the whole nuclear free thing, the NZ Navy wasn't allowed to dock in the military area in Pearl Harbour for years, they had to dock with all the civilian ships, but now they're allowed to dock in the military area. They've also participated in RIMPAC since 2012.
Interesting that since the official stance of the US government is they won't disclose capabilities that this puts a wholesale ban on US Navy ships. I did not know about that. Although, it does seems to be 'thawing' [0].
Well, I don't know about the Dairy Board, but any sufficiently large merchant could probably find a legitimate use for a MiG-15, especially since at that point they were basically all adapted for air-to-ground attack.
[1] http://www.hoonable.com/butter-for-cars-how-the-lada-came-to...
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/russia-offered...