This could be a watershed week for New Zealand’s international relations. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, is heading to Washington, D.C., for a full week of meetings. The surprisingly lengthy trip just happens to coincide with a major trilateral summit of leaders from the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. And a media report over … Read more
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington is his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy coincidence that the visit is taking … Read more
Early reactions to the ANZMIN 2+2 meeting of Australia and New Zealand’s foreign and defense ministers suggest that New Zealand’s recently elected coalition government is breaking with the country’s traditional foreign policy independence. On February 1, New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defense Minister Judith Collins met with Australia’s Deputy … Read more
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the deployment of New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) troops to support the U.S.-led military response to the attacks on commercial shipping from Houthis in Yemen that began on November 19. In announcing the contribution, Luxon played down its uniqueness, saying “choosing to support action in the Middle East is … Read more
New Zealand’s new right-wing government is making dramatic changes to foreign policy. Prime Minister Chris Luxon of the National Party has privileged the priorities of his two coalition partners: New Zealand First and ACT. A core agenda of this coalition government will be to dismantle and undermine progress on Māori rights domestically, and Indigenous rights … Read more
New Zealand’s international relations are under new management. And Winston Peters, the new foreign minister, is already setting a change agenda. As expected, this includes a more pro-U.S. positioning when it comes to the Pacific. Peters sought to align New Zealand more closely with the United States under his “Pacific Reset” policy that he launched … Read more
Advertisement New Zealand’s new government will need to hit the ground running on foreign affairs. Determining New Zealand’s full response to the war in Gaza and the fallout in the wider Middle East will be the first major test for whoever takes the foreign minister’s role. New Zealand has been run by a Labor caretaker … Read more
Advertisement On October 14, New Zealanders voted to boot Chris Hipkins and his Labor party colleagues out of government. The red wave surfed by Jacinda Ardern in 2020 crumbled, with Labor losing almost half their seats in Parliament as a result. New Zealand’s proportional electoral system means it is rare for one party to form … Read more
Advertisement As the United States and Australia deepen ties with various Asian and Southeast Asian states, the issue of whether New Zealand or Canada should join the nascent AUKUS security arrangement becomes more pressing. Both states already share deep security relationships with Australia and the United States. These include the Five Eyes intelligence arrangement (which, … Read more
Advertisement A shakeup of the ministers responsible for New Zealand’s international relations seems almost guaranteed, irrespective of the country’s election result on October 14. Coalition politics are likely to play a key role in appointments related to foreign affairs. Based on current opinion polling, a government led by the center-right National Party would probably need to … Read more