Peters pushes NZ’s role in the Pacific
Diplomatic move is ‘neighbourly’ but also effort to reassert influence
Winston Peters has made an art form out of bidding up large in Budget rounds. So it was no surprise that the Foreign Affairs Minister chose an address at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday evening to stake out the coalition Government’s plans for a big dollop of new cash to underwrite plans for a Pacific reset.
Nor that he indicated that it was time to reverse a trend which has seen NZ’s overseas aid, as a proportion of gross national income, dropping from 0.3 per cent in 2008 to 0.25 per cent in 2016.
The Pacific is New Zealand’s backyard. It is resource rich. But increasingly, other nation state actors have moved in to occupy the territory that Australia and New Zealand have long regarded as theirs, exerting influence and creating “strategic anxiety”.
New Zealand remains the Pacific’s second-largest donor.
But Australia has been nudging New Zealand to increase the level of financial support this nation gives to the Pacific.
Partly, this is driven by China’s increasing role in the region. But it is also driven by the problems many Pacific nations face. “There might not be votes in it, but it is the right thing to do and it shows New Zealand’s seriousness in being an active and good neighbour,” Peters said.
He indicated that there will be a substantial Budget increase for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — which he believes needs to increase its focus on diplomacy — and also for the Pacific.
Perhaps in line with the position
that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern staked out in her first major foreign policy speech on in Wellington on Tuesday, Peters did not single out China directly. He said: “So much is changing in the Pacific and sometimes not for the best. Need and temptation often leads to greater risk than prudence would suggest.”
Peters’ comments came as Xinhua reported that Tonga is willing to enhance co-operation with China in areas including trade, building infrastructure and under China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also met King Tupou VI on Thursday afternoon in Beijing.
The king said he hoped China could help Tonga to realise greater development and address the challenges posed by climate change.
Li called on the two countries to consolidate political trust, expand pragmatic co-operation, enhance people-to-people exchanges and integrate the Belt and Road initiative and Tonga’s development strategy.
“China supports the major production projects, infrastructure and projects related to people’s wellbeing in Tonga,” Li said, adding that “China is willing to have agricultural technology exchanges with Tonga, and the Chinese market also welcomes high-quality agricultural and fishery products from Tonga.”
This is the nature of the Pacific today.
Can North Korea change?
“Yes — If North Korea, with the possible involvement of China, realises there is no other way out but to stop the nuclear development programme”. Peters suggested a second factor would be to have enough countries prepared to put up the money to help North Korea make change. But North Korea had to be left with no alternative — and a big carrot.
The US role in the world
“I do have considerable time for [US Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson. I think he is a seriously talented, intelligent, highly experienced personality. He is doing it for reasons totally unrelated to ego.
“As for the tweeting President, with the greatest respect, if you’re the leader of the free world . . . I’d get off the tweet — just leave it alone. This is not some social engagement downtown in the weekend. This is about the world’s peace and security.”
The Belt and Road memorandum signed between NZ and China
“I do regret the speed with which the previous Government signed up . . . they couldn’t have known with any great depth. I do not feel we should be bound because the previous Government signed up to something. Let’s face it, we’ve all got belts and we’ve all got roads.”