Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta is leaving for Beijing tomorrow to meet with China's State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang.
The two-day stay in China's capital marks the first travel to China by a New Zealand government minister since 2019, after the easing of travel restrictions between the two countries.
Mahuta said she planned to discuss areas of cooperation like trade, people-to-people links, climate and environment, as well as advocating for New Zealand's interests and values including on human rights.
She will also meet with business leaders and hold a breakfast roundtable with women leaders.
"This visit provides an opportunity to have a constructive discussion across a broad range of areas - both where our interests and values align, like that of climate change, and where they differ," Mahuta said.
"New Zealand's relationship with China is one of our most important, complex and wide ranging. Last year we marked fifty years of diplomatic relations."