Turnbull to press Ardern for extended commitment in Iraq

Jacinda Ardern will come under pressure from Malcolm Turnbull to extend NZ’s commitment in Iraq.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: AFP

Jacinda Ardern will come under pressure from Malcolm Turnbull to “swallow a dead rat” and extend New Zealand’s military commitment in Iraq at talks in Sydney next month, despite previously opposing the move.

Last week, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters refused to reveal whether the deployment would continue past a November deadline after meetings with his Australian counterpart, Julie Bishop.

NZ foreign policy analyst David Capie, from the Victoria University of Wellington, said the move would upset voters but would be necessary to avoid another blow-up in trans-Tasman relations.

“It will be a tough call. Withdrawing might be more popular at home but it would come at a cost to the trans-Tasman relationship,” he told The Australian.

“At a time when the NZ government is trying to highlight a more positive relationship with Australia, this might be a dead rat they feel they have to swallow.”

NZ has about 110 soldiers training Iraqi troops alongside Australian troops as part of Task Group Taji at the air base of the same name north of Baghdad.

“All three parties in the current government opposed the extension of the Iraq mission back in 2016 and a lot of Labour and Green voters would be very unhappy to see the mission extended again,” Mr Capie said.

Ms Bishop visited NZ last week to meet with Mr Peters. Ahead of the meeting, she said she would be asking for an indication of NZ’s intention.

“I think it has been a very successful mission in Taji and of course we would want that to continue, but that is a matter for the NZ government,” she said.

After the meetings, Mr Peters said he could not answer the question.

“The reality is, we have not had a definitive request from the [Iraqi] government and as a consequence, that is not a question we can answer at this point in time,” he reportedly said.

“We did discuss it, but we did not enunciate from our point of view a decision.”

Australia and NZ are attending the Foreign Ministerial Meeting of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIL in Kuwait this week, hosted by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Mr Peters said the issue would then be decided after meetings between the NZ and Australian prime ministers in March, NZ media reported.

Ms Bishop quietly had her first meeting with Ms Ardern after an awkward blow-up during the NZ election campaign over the involvement of an NZ Labour MP in the Barnaby Joyce citizenship saga.