Ardern calls for wider view of Pacific diplomacy
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in Spain to address the Nato Leaders’ Summit, says the West needs to take a more expansive view on diplomacy in the Pacific.
Last night she was with the West’s most powerful leaders at a dinner hosted by the king of Spain.
The ‘‘AP4’’ as they’re being called – Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea – will also be meeting with the Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg.
Ardern said the dinner at the Zarzuela Palace was a fairly intimate and relaxed event, with invitations extended only to the heads of government and their partners.
It gave the elected leaders the opportunity to meet speak more candidly, she said, with the guest list including United States President Joe Biden and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The event even included a very specific dress code, Ardern said – formal but not ball-gown-formal,
with dresses no higher than the knee, but not floor length.
Ardern told Stuff she planned to stress the importance of climate change as the most pressing threat to security and stability in the Pacific. She also raised trade barriers as a contributing force to instability.
Ahead of her Nato ‘‘intervention’’ – which is what they’re calling the speech in Madrid – Ardern said the West needed to take a more expansive view on diplomacy in the Pacific, especially. ‘‘Relationships should not be just viewed through a military lens,’’ she said.
She said if the US or Europe engaged more and traded more with the Pacific, then relationships between the two regions would improve. While China had been making moves in the Pacific, investing heavily in infrastructure for many nations, Ardern said other countries could also look to strengthen economic ties which could lead to greater stability.