Ardern offers help on Rohingyas
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has offered Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi any help New Zealand could give to resolve the Rohingya crisis.
The pair met in Singapore yesterday and began by acknowledging it had been a year since they last met — at Apec in Vietnam, and at the East Asia Summit in the Philippines.
Suu Kyi, once an international icon of the human rights movement because of her resistance to military rule in Myanmar, is fast becoming a pariah because of her apparent indifference to the persecution by the military of the Rohingyas under her watch as leader.
The United Nations has said it has the hallmarks of genocide.
Ardern said before the bilateral meeting that she would “absolutely” raise the issue of Rohingyas.
When Ardern and her party of officials first entered the room to wait for Suu Kyi, she spotted what appeared to be a listening device on the table between where the two leaders would be sitting.
After ascertaining it belonged to nobody in the room, she handed it to the New Zealand diplomatic protection squad officer, who passed it on to summit security, to quips of “teapot-tape two”.
Later a spokesman for Ardern said the discussions had focused on the situation with the Rohingyas.
“New Zealand indicated our willingness to assist in any way we could to achieve an enduring resolution to the situation.”
Thunder and lightning provided the backdrop to the Asean Summit’s first day, which will be followed by the East Asia Summit including NZ.
Ardern began her day with a lengthy interview on Channel News Asia’s breakfast show.
She was quizzed by three hosts on a range of issues from climate change, to women in leadership, to the first lengthy absence from her 5-month-old baby Neve. She said her partner, Clarke Gayford, had been sending videos of the baby.
On climate change she said the Pacific Islands were using their voice as independent nations.
“But we also see ourselves as having a duty of care, responsibility, we are members of the Pacific too.”
The islands contributed the least to increasing emissions, and yet were facing the brunt.
She avoided questions about China’s role in the Pacific. Instead she talked about NZ’s “Pacific Reset”, increasing the resourcing and emphasis on the Pacific in foreign policy in more of a “partnership” than a “donor-donee” relationship.
She talked about the Coalition Government, the fees-free policy and women in leadership and said after three women leaders in New Zealand, the novelty had worn off.
Quizzed about why New Zealand did so well in many spheres internationally, she first praised Singapore’s innovation as well.
“But when it comes to us, we are isolated, we are a small country, if we were ever going to solve problems we had to do it ourselves.”