Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says upcoming visits to our Pacific neighbours will have a respectful approach, contrasting it with her Chinese counterpart's whistlestop tour.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Mahuta has been under pressure over New Zealand's relationships to its Pacific neighbours, with the opposition saying the government needs to hustle harder.
Mahuta this morning said she had engaged more than 100 times recently - long-distance, and in person - with Pacific counterparts, including at a bilateral level and relating to the Pacific Island Forum.
Her department was actively planning on a series of in-person visits, she said, though she did not elaborate on how many and where.
"The benefit of that is that we can not only visit with them but spend some really valuable time discussing the issues that are important to them like climate change, economic resilience, and things like that."
She said the approach to the visits would one that "respects the Pacific".
It follows a trip by China's foreign Minister Wang Yi which stopped in eight Pacific nations, first to formally sign a security agreement with Solomon Islands, then striking further bilateral agreements.
Wang was also aiming to promote a broader multi-national trade and security agreement with several Pacific countries. He was unable to get that across the line, but China "remains confident" over its prospects.
Mahuta described Wang's approach as unusual.
"It was an unusual step to do eight or so countries all at once but we respect our Pacific partners, we believe that we are reliable, respected partners to the Pacific and to their aspirations."
She said New Zealand supported many Pacific countries' stance that security should be discussed regionally, and the appropriate place for that was the Pacific Island Forum.
The bilateral agreements were matters for each of the countries they related to, she said.
"We respect the sovereignty of those countries. Sure, we're assessing what the potential implications are but from all accounts and purposes many of the Pacific nations have said that matters that may impact on regional security should be discussed at a regional level, and I support that."
China's increased activity in the region was also a clear focus in Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's recent talks with US President Joe Biden.
She said some of the criticisms of New Zealand's approach did a disservice to Pacific nations.
"These are sovereign nations who have had relationships with China that span many years, as New Zealand does, and the idea that they are somehow unable to determine their own relationships with China and that should somehow be dictated or persuaded by visits from New Zealand and Australia sits totally against our view that it's about partnership," she said.
"The Pacific is our family and so we treat those relationships carefully, with dignity and respect."
She said travel to Pacific nations without a specific exemption during the Covid-19 pandemic had only recently become possible.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon has been one of those criticising the minister for not being in the Pacific. He said Ardern's response simply showed the pressure the government was under.
"From the public and the media and the opposition, but ... look, we expect Minister Mahuta to be up there building those relationships, building those partnerships and that's a good thing if she's getting up there."
He said China's approach represented a big change in the geopolitics of the region.
"The two questions are fundamentally, do we actually have the relationships and the partnerships with the Pacific Island nations that we think we have? ... and the second thing is we actually just think we should have our team up there fully engaging with those partners."
He said trade with China employed millions of New Zealanders, but the country needed to be able to raise problems directly.
"We should be able to raise our issues ... but we can do that respectfully. We've had respectful relationships with China for 50 years.
"New Zealand always needs to have an independent foreign policy, and that's important for us and we'll continue to hold that and the government and the National Party are very aligned on that ... but what we need to do is get out and engage with the Pacific."
He said New Zealand could be coming up with ideas about how to offer more to the Pacific, and he was open to the idea of providing more aid to the region, but carefully.
"It's about making sure that we've got a programme of partnership between each country, and we're working together really constructively in working out how we can help and how we can deepen those relationships."
Ardern's visit to the White House was good too, he said, and the United States needed to again be engaging more with the Pacific.
"The US has obviously been in and out of the Pacific at different times. It's important that they actually now are engaged again, it's helpful to us and our interests there."