Ardern takes NZ’s case to the heavyweights
PARIS: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has begun racking up a hattrick of meetings with heavyweights in Europe.
She was due to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau overnight, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin tonight.
Ms Ardern’s meeting with Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris was set for 45 minutes, during which she was expected to invite him to New Zealand.
If he accepts, it will be the first visit by a French president to New Zealand.
Mr Macron is due to visit New Caledonia in May, before its selfrule referendum, and then Australia, but he is not likely to be able to fit in a trip to New Zealand.
On an overcast day in Paris it was very much time for the young ones — Ms Ardern, Mr Trudeau and Mr Macron are part of the small ‘‘under40s’’ club of world leaders.
Their age has ensured they capture attention — including Ms Ardern, who had a piece on climate change published in Le Figaro.
Ms Ardern went to Paris to seek Mr Macron’s support for a freetrade deal with the EU.
It is also a relationshipbuilding mission to ensure New Zealand has influential friends in the EU after it loses its primary champion, Britain. France and Germany are vital to that.
Mr Macron, Mr Trudeau and Ms Ardern have more than age in common — all have also put climate change at the top of their political platforms.
Ms Ardern’s meeting at the Elysee Palace was expected to canvass the freetrade agreement with the EU and the unfolding situation after Allied missile strikes in Syria.
After a day with the younger leaders, Ms Ardern will meet one of the most experienced and powerful — Mrs Merkel.
It will be one of Ms Ardern’s most interesting meetings because of the sway Mrs Merkel has in Europe and over international events, making her a potentially powerful ally on issues from the reform of the Security Council’s veto power to free trade in the EU.
While Ms Ardern may have some explaining to do about New Zealand First leader Winston Peters’ sympathetic views towards Russia, Mrs Merkel has been a strong supporter of New Zealand’s attempts to get a freetrade agreement with the EU.
That is critical as Britain prepares to leave the EU. — NZME