Luxon: ‘We just urge restraint’
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has condemned Iran’s retaliatory military strikes on Israel, urgining restraint and de-escalation.
Speaking from Singapore, Luxon said the conflict was not going to be resolved militarily.
“This is something quite different. And it’s quite a delicate moment in the history of the region because we’ve had a direct attack from Iranian soil onto Israeli soil.”
Iran launched retaliatory military strikes on Israel on the weekend. Israel said it and its allies thwarted 99% of the more than 300 drones and missiles launched toward its territory.
Luxon said New Zealand’s message was simple. “You know, we just urge restraint and de-escalation in this region.”
He said the last thing this region needed was more conflict. “This conflict will only get resolved when the parties get around a table and negotiate that requires this case with respect to Gaza, Hamas to release hostages, and we need to get those two parties into the Middle East peace process.”
Ahead of the trip, Luxon described the South East Asian region as “more crucial than ever to New Zealand’s prosperity and our security”.
In his media conference, he reiterated the need for New Zealand to deepen relations. “We’re living in a more volatile, more uncertain, more complex, more ambiguous world. There’s a lot more geostrategic competition ... and it's important that we actually deepen our relationships both in an economic sense and driving prosperity in our respective countries, but also in a security sense.”
Luxon was meeting Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.
“There's a deliberate reason why I've come to Singapore, after having visited Australia last year is because this is the gateway economy and country to the region through Singapore.”
Luxon has described Singapore as “one of our most important partners in South East Asia, and one of our largest sources of foreign investment”. New Zealand sends about $2.3 billion worth of exports to Singapore, importing about $8b worth of goods from Singapore. “More than that it's also the gateway to 650 million consumers. And so for me, it's about continuing to deepen those relationships.”
Next stop is Thailand, which New Zealand imports $3b from and exports $1.4b to, while the Philippines exports $989 million to New Zealand, and receives $391m of New Zealand goods.
NZ Trade and Enterprise SE Asia regional director Rachael Kerr described the three markets as “critical to the Government's ambition to diversify our trade and accelerate New Zealand's economic growth”.