Nato gathering
acknowledged and welcomed. She said these recent discussions at Nato had not revealed any areas where New Zealand could contribute more.
Ardern spoke at the leaders’ forum in the afternoon following Zelenskyy’s morning address on Wednesday and acknowledged the humanitarian crisis playing out in Ukraine.
‘‘Russia’s actions are an affront to all of us. Not because this conflict should be characterised as a war of the West versus Russia, or even democracy versus autocracy, it is neither. Rather it’s a war of Russia versus all those who hold a basic sense of humanity and chose to act on it,’’ she said.
She said Russia’s power on multilateral bodies such as the United Nations Security Council needed to be reconsidered and called for reform of the UN in response.
Zelenskyy also questioned why Russia was allowed to continue to hold such powerful positions. He said the goal of Russia was to destroy international structures and said [Russian President] Vladimir Putin clearly had no regard for international rules or law which the UN promoted.
Ardern also highlighted China’s human rights abuses and called for nuclear disarmament during her speech. While condemning Russia and voicing her concern over China’s willingness to break international norms, she started her speech with a clear note that New Zealand did not want to expand its military alliances.
On China, she said it was clear the country was becoming more assertive and a response was needed. But she stressed that New Zealand wanted to see more diplomatic responses, and said internationalism rather than military alliances were important for global stability and security.
‘‘We must stand firm on the rules-based order, call for diplomatic engagement and speak out against human rights abuses at all times when and where we see them,’’ she said.
Shortly before delivering her speech, Ardern bumped into Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – leading to an impromptu meeting between the two leaders after the speeches ended.