Winston Peters delivers a speech about NZ’s relationship with China but media focus on Bob Carr’s talk of legal action
Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council.
One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS.
One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS.
But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations in a major foreign policy speech he delivered to the Institute of International Affairs on Wednesday .
Peters emphasised then that the government has yet to decide whether to collaborate with AUKUS because it has not been invited.
Any association would be through pillar two of the military tie-up, which will result in AUKUS members – Australia, the UK and US – developing and sharing advanced warfaring technologies with other nations.
In his speech to the China Council this morning, Peters noted that this year is the 10th anniversary of New Zealand’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China.
He proceeded to examine the issues on which this country and China have an amicable relationship – and those on which they disagree.
The speech is posted on the government’s official website, along with ministerial statements on housing, insurance regulations, and equal pay.
Peters emphasised then that the government has yet to decide whether to collaborate with AUKUS because it has not been invited.
Any association would be through pillar two of the military tie-up, which will result in AUKUS members – Australia, the UK and US – developing and sharing advanced warfaring technologies with other nations.
In his speech to the China Council this morning, Peters noted that this year is the 10th anniversary of New Zealand’s Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with China.
He proceeded to examine the issues on which this country and China have an amicable relationship – and those on which they disagree.
The speech is posted on the government’s official website, along with ministerial statements on housing, insurance regulations, and equal pay.
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In his speech to the China Council, Winston Peters said:
China is a vital economic partner for New Zealand, offering opportunities for trade, investment, and cooperation that benefits both sides. We value a productive, stable, and complementary trading relationship with China. China has been New Zealand’s largest trading partner since 2017.
Two-way trade amounted to nearly NZ$38 billion in the year ending December 2023. It remains an important destination for New Zealand’s products and accounted for nearly 22 per cent of our total goods and services exports last year.
New Zealand continues to be a trusted and reliable supplier not just of dairy, meat and wood products to China, but also of innovative goods across health and nutrition, fitness and other sectors. This trade is supported by a highly successful bilateral free trade agreement, concluded in 2008 and further upgraded in 2022.
But differences of opinion were inevitable because New Zealand and China’s histories, cultures, political systems diverge in significant ways.
Peters listed human rights issues, cyber-attacks and interference efforts that are intended to influence, disrupt, or subvert New Zealand’s national interests, Chinese vessels using water cannons against Filipino vessels, and growing tensions, and hardening rhetoric across the Taiwan Strait
China has a long-standing presence in the Pacific, but we are seriously concerned by increased engagement in Pacific security sectors. We do not want to see developments that destabilise the institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned our region’s security.
With great power comes great responsibility, so we think that China has a responsibility to play a constructive role to address international security challenges, encourage de-escalation, and ease tensions, such as in ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Hamas.
We have encouraged China to be clear, in line with its commitment to the UN Charter and its position as a P5 member, that it does not support Russia’s unlawful war in Ukraine, and we urge China to halt actions which help Russia to rebuild its war-fighting capability and prolong the conflict.
We have also encouraged China to do what it can to persuade Pyongyang to stop its nuclear and ballistic missile programme and cease its export of arms to Russia. In the tinderbox of the Middle East, China can also play a vital role via its relationship with Iran in de-escalating tensions.
Now, we believe, is a time where China leadership and diplomacy would materially help to ease global tensions.
In the aftermath of his speech to the Institute of International Affairs, Peters made some tart remarks about AUKUS critic Bob Carr which Carr complains were defamatory.
The Canberra Times reports:
Former Australian foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr intends to sue New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters for allegations made about Mr Carr’s closeness to China, as a stoush over AUKUS turns feral.
The Labour opposition called on Prime Minister Chris Luxon to sack Mr Peters after the veteran called Mr Carr “nothing more than a Chinese puppet” and more on Radio NZ on Thursday morning.
The Canberra Times report recalls that Carr had shared his criticisms of the US-led pact on a visit to Wellington in April, calling it “methane-wrapped bullshit” and saying he admired Kiwi foreign policy as it wasn’t as “gullible to the Americans” as Australia.
Peters subsequently is reported to have been sent a formal letter from Carr threatening defamation action.
During question time in Parliament yesterday Labour Foreign Affairs spokesperson David Parker asked Peters if he stood by his criticisms of the critics of AUKUS, including his statement about Bob Carr that “he is nothing more than a Chinese puppet”?
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Minister of Foreign Affairs): Yes, particularly those comments that highlighted the fact that critics don’t know what they don’t know regarding the strategic challenges New Zealand faces; that they malign the agencies of State charged with collecting and analysing, for their Government, intelligence that informs our view about the challenging strategic environment in the Pacific; that Pillar 2 is a technology-sharing mechanism and not a military alliance; that the critics were silent like lambs ever since October 2021, when that member’s Government started considering New Zealand’s involvement with AUKUS—the same Labour Government that sanctioned officials to initiate discussions with AUKUS partners in 2023 but who now act like lions, following the change of Government. And one last thing: as for Bob Carr, it appears we’ve been late to the party. Here, I refer to an article in the Australian Financial Review dated 8 November 2018 that anticipated my remarks. It says, “How Bob Carr became China’s Pawn”. Oh, by the way, can I just finish by saying, look, perhaps with his extensive legal knowledge, the member can explain the difference between a puppet and a pawn.
In its report on the Peters-Carr brouhaha, the South China Morning Post says
Carr is known as a vocal supporter of close political and trade ties with China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States.
After leaving office he was director of the Australia-China Relations Institute, a part of the University of Technology Sydney which today takes funding from a range of companies that do business with or in China, including Beijing’s state-owned China Construction Bank.
Carr, like the Chinese government, has been a fierce critic of AUKUS, particularly pillar one of the agreement, which is focused on supplying Australia with nuclear-powered conventionally armed submarines.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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