Has Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's high-profile trip stateside been a success? Just how important are those face-to-face meetings, talk show appearances and business visits to New Zealand's relationship with the US?
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert while in the US. Photo:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's trip to the United States has been as high profile as any made by a New Zealand leader in recent memory.
From her appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, to delivering Harvard University's commencement speech, to an imminent White House meeting with US President Joe Biden, the trip has reinforced Ardern's visibility stateside.
But beyond the television appearances and photo opportunities, what did Ardern and her officials want to achieve on this trip?
"This trip is very much three-legged," says Newsroom's political editor Jo Moir.
"It is tourism, it is trade, and then it's politics.
"In terms of tourism, [the message] is very much 'New Zealand is open for business'.
"It's also about the business delegation travelling with her, giving them both tourism opportunities and trade opportunities…getting meetings they will benefit from, whether that's to grow in the US market or to get entry to the US market.
"Then you've got the politics: the influence of China in the Pacific region, getting the US in to counter-balance that, and having that relationship with President Biden."
The US, like New Zealand, has been accused of neglecting the Pacific, leaving a vacuum which China is eager to fill, as demonstrated by its strengthening ties with Solomon Islands, the Chinese foreign minister's tour of the Pacific, and the leaked proposal for a regional economic security deal with 10 Pacific countries.
Mindful of all this, former diplomat and trade consultant Stephen Jacobi says the US may be looking to reinforce its relationships with countries like New Zealand.
"People often say, 'are we going to be forced to choose between China and the United States?'
"We chose ages ago to be an open, liberal, market economy, a democracy. We've made those choices. We're always going to be found on the side of those who share a similar outlook.
"So to the extent that all that matters, yes, we are becoming more important to the United States."
Ardern’s trip has led to some criticism, and accusations that the prime minister is more concerned with burnishing her international image than effecting meaningful change at home.
Moir says that's a bit short-sighted.
"John Key did this, Helen Clark did this. It's not new. John Key has done many an interview to push New Zealand's brand…I don't have a strong view either way other than to say people will think what they think, and I don't know that Jacinda Ardern will lose votes over this."
And Jacobi says observers shouldn't underestimate the benefits an overseas trip like this can bring.
"The fact now is that she has the opportunity to talk to the president. That's the icing on the cake.
"She won't come back with a free trade agreement. She won't come back with the United States pledging to come back to TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, now known as the CPTPP]. The politics are against all those things. But I think having this opportunity to raise key issues with the president…it's invaluable."
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Photo: Newsroom/RNZ