PM: New Five Eyes position not backdown

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is adamant New Zealand’s new reticence about issuing statements via the Five Eyes alliance is not a backdown to China.

Her comments come after Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta noted New Zealand’s discomfort with Five Eyes’ ‘‘expanding remit’’. The Five Eyes is an intelligencesharing group of five Western nations – New Zealand, the United States, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.

For decades the alliance was kept mostly hidden but in recent years several statements have been issued by the grouping – some not including New Zealand – criticising China over human rights and democracy issues. China has been furious about such statements.

New Zealand’s stance contrasts with that of Australia, which has been more forthright in criticism of China, and has faced trade restrictions from the emerging superpower.

Ardern was asked by Australian morning show ABC News Breakfast if this risked sending a signal to China that New Zealand was not ‘‘one’’ with its Five Eyes partners on issues of democracy and human rights.

Ardern said New Zealand just believed that the Five Eyes group was not the best platform to deliver those messages. ‘‘Those collective voices are important, but let’s make sure we do it with the appropriate platform.’’ She said those groupings could be wider if not restricted to the Five Eyes group – and could be as narrow as just Australia and New Zealand.