Diplomacy ‘never more needed’, says Peters at Anzac Cove
Diplomacy had never been more needed to “de-escalate conflicts” and ease tensions as “we live in a troubled world, the worst in memory”, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said as part of a speech he made at the dawn service speech at Anzac Cove in Turkey yesterday.
“From the distant Pacific Ocean, we arrive with humility upon your land. Our footprints and your footprints are joined forever,” Peters told the crowd. “The fallen warriors of our people and your people rest together within your ancestral soil.
“Young men on all sides of the battle who never lived to see their respective countries emerge from empire to become strong independent nations.”
Peters warned that the world had emerged from a global pandemic into a more divided world, where regional instabilities and “the chaos they create” threaten the security of too many.
To honour those who sacrificed their lives, people must all come together as people and nations, he said. “We must all do more,” he said. “Demand more. And deliver more. Never has diplomacy been more needed to de-escalate conflicts and ease tensions. That is our lesson and resolve when leaving Gallipoli today.”
Gallipoli continued to live strongly on New Zealand’s national consciousness because the country lost so many young men, Peters said. “Our young country lost so much potential and possible futures on this ground and so many other fields across Europe.” Memories link the past with the present, he said, and they bind “our efforts to learn from history so as never to repeat its worst expression, war”.
“You will create your own memories and draw your own lessons from being here,” said Peters. “From a long-ago battlefield to this morning’s promise, we must leave this ground dedicated to making our worlds better. Then the men buried here will not have died in vain.”
He said people must “protect and care for our young”, reject and resist those who seek to conquer and control and seek the path of peace.
He joined his Australian counterpart, Richard Marles, to lay a wreath.
Earlier yesterday in Wellinton, about 5000 people gathered dawn at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. It was the only official event to take place in the capital due to bad weather.
And it was the last Anzac Day for Air Marshal Kevin Short, New Zealand’s Defence Force chief, and his Australian equal, General Angus Campbell, in their respective jobs. Both are retiring in coming months and decided to spend this Anzac Day together in Wellington.
The chairperson of the Ukrainian Gromada in Wellington said at the event that since the Russian invasion, Ukrainians in New Zealand increasingly sympathised and understood what Anzacs went through as many lost relatives in the ongoing war.
Not far away, a group of pro-Palestine protesters from Peace Action Wellington lay down, with three people holding a banner saying “no NZ complicity in war and genocide”.
Teirangi Klever, spokesperson of the Palestine protest, said the Anzac service was the “perfect opportunity” to draw attention to New Zealand’s “complicity” in the events in Gaza.