New Zealand is calling on China to play its part in de-escalating rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
(Bloomberg) — New Zealand is calling on China to play its part in de-escalating rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.
“New Zealand is concerned about a worsening strategic environment and rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, in particular in places like the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,” Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said in a speech Monday in Auckland. “We have direct interests in these areas and are therefore focused on the need for tensions to be carefully managed and de-escalated in the wider interests of the region. And we look to China to play its part in this regard.”
Hipkins, who recently returned from leading a trade delegation to China including a meeting with President Xi Jinping, reiterated that the relationship between the two nations is complex. China is the largest offshore market for New Zealand milk, meat and logs but the South Pacific nation is also concerned about human rights, democracy, disarmament and demilitarization in the region.
The Indo-Pacific “is becoming more contested, less predictable, and less secure,” Hipkins said. “In this increasingly complex global environment, our relationship with China will continue to require careful management.”
Hipkins said New Zealand will speak “candidly, but respectfully” with China about issues on which the nations differ.
New Zealand will also work with others to address global challenges, he said.
“That New Zealand’s approach will often align with that of our most like-minded partners, with whom we share many common interests and values, should not be a surprise,” he said. “Australia, in particular, is New Zealand’s only ally and our closest partner. It is natural that we will often have a similar perspective on the sharpening geostrategic environment.”
Still, Hipkins said there is “tactical strength” in not always taking the same approach as other partners, noting that engagement with Southeast Asian nations and India is another means of influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
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