Biden meeting in doubt
Ardern’s recent brush with Covid means she may not be able to meet President
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will head to the United States tonight — but her recent bout of Covid-19 has put at risk her first White House visit and meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Ardern was expected to visit the White House on her trip but strict White House protocols around Covid have thrown the meeting into doubt.
Ardern said the issue was her recent infection rather than any unwillingness to meet on either side. No other country’s leader had had Covid so soon before going to the White House and that had resulted in uncertainty.
Officials have been trying to secure a slightly later date for a meeting — that is yet to be confirmed, but there is optimism it will now take place next week after the rest of her US trip.
If so, Ardern will extend her time away for it by another two days.
It would be the first White House visit for a Prime Minister since John Key went to see then President Barack Obama in 2014.
Covid-19 has meant Ardern and Biden have not met in person since Biden was elected President in early 2021, although they have had phone calls and virtual meetings.
Ardern’s positive Covid result also meant she had to delay her departure by a couple of days to meet the US requirement of a 10-day wait after testing positive. That meant events, including to promote the film industry in Los Angeles, had to be scrapped and Ardern will instead start in New York.
Ardern said the logistical headaches her infection had resulted in were just a part of dealing with the virus these days.
“So there are a few challenges that come with that and in these times you roll with the Covid curveball that you are thrown.
“That doesn’t mean we don’t crack on with the job.”
Ardern will meet with members of the US Senate in Washington DC as part of her trip, which includes New York, Boston, Seattle, and San Francisco. Highlights of her itinerary include the Harvard University Commencement Ceremony address, a repeat appearance on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show, and meetings with tech and social media giants including Twitter, Microsoft and Google.
Ardern said she could not imagine a more important time for political engagement with the US as Biden moved to do more in the Indo-Pacific — a region in which China is also active. Biden is expected to firm up his proposal for an Indo Pacific Economic Plan — something Ardern has said New Zealand was likely to sign up for. However, in her pre-trip interview, she made it clear that it fell short of what New Zealand wanted from the US on trade — and that the CPTPP was still the primary goal.
“That does not mean we will back off the CPTPP because that is where we see an existing framework that is a high-quality agreement and that sets a high standard we know is beneficial to our exporters.”
She acknowledged Biden’s interest in the Indo-Pacific compared to former US President Donald Trump.
“In the Pacific, really what we have called for is the return. The United States has been a present force in our region for a number of years. What we’ve seen in recent years, though, was a particular focus perhaps to other domestic matters or into other regions and slightly less of a presence in ours.”
New Zealand has long sought a free-trade agreement with the US. , whether bilateral or through the CPTPP. Former President Obama had championed it but Trump pulled the US out of it in 2017.