Jacinda Ardern slammed over her ‘appalling’ gift for Joe Biden

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been criticised for her “shocking” choice of gift for Joe Biden.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been criticised for her choice of gift for Joe Biden — a swamp kauri bowl made from glazed timber harvested from trees that had been buried for 60,000 years.

The head of the Northland Environmental Protection Society said Ms Ardern’s gift was “appalling”, insisting her the exchange of indigenous plants and the harm the extraction process causes on the ecosystem was a major “faux pas”.

NEP chair Fiona Furrell said the Prime Minister‘s Office needed to do more “investigating” when buying gifts for world-famous people and had shown ”a lack of care”.

“To us swamp kauri, of all things for a gift to America, is really not on. It’s shocking after all the work we’ve gone through to try and protect these wetlands that produce the swamp kauri,” chair Fiona Furrell told local publication RNZ.

“Any use of swamp kauri that is featured by our government, therefore puts our wetlands at risk, because people will want more swamp kauri now.”

“He [Biden] could make the decision himself. Perhaps it could be returned to New Zealand.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been criticised for her choice of gift to Joe Biden — a swamp kauri bowl made from glazed timber harvested from trees that have been buried for 60,000 years.

In 2018, A Supreme Court of New Zealand ruling found that for a swamp kauri item to be legally exported, it must be a product in itself and in its final form, and it must be ready to be installed into a larger structure.

Ms Ardern’s office confirmed the government had purchased the gift from Nelson Parker, a businessman who was investigated in 2019 for exporting wood products to China.

The criticism came after Ms Ardern said there was a need for “greater transparency” about what China had agreed with the Solomon Islands, during talks with Western leaders over security in the region.

The United States and its allies worry China is using security aid to develop a military foothold in the Pacific Islands.

Ardern expressed “deep concern” about any moves that caused “the militarisation of our region.”

Washington will open missions in Tonga and Kiribati and also appoint its first-ever Pacific regional envoy, pledging $600 million in funding for the region at the Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji last week.

The mounting US-China rivalry in the Pacific has directed intense interest towards this year’s meeting, which brings together leaders from across the strategically important region.

Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni told AFP his country was “really happy that the US will be opening an embassy in Tonga, it will be the first time”.

“It is a big milestone. We are very happy we are finally having a US presence in Tonga,” he said.

- with AFP