New Zealand eases tension ahead of talks

The Ardern government has sought to reduce concerns about a gap between New Zealand and its Five Eyes partners on handling China as Marise Payne flies into Wellington.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2019. Picture: AFP

The Ardern government has scrambled to ease concerns about a gap between New Zealand and its other Five Eyes intelligence partners on handling China, as Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne flies into Wellington.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern sought to calm unease among fellow members about her government’s approach to the group after her Foreign Minister, Nanaia Mahuta, on Monday said New Zealand was “uncomfortable” with “expanding the remit of the Five Eyes relationship”.

“We should be banding together where we see issues globally that don’t align with our shared values,” Ms Ardern said on Tuesday. “But the point our Foreign Minister has rightly raised is, Is this best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform? Or is it best done under the banner of a group of countries with shared values, some of which may not belong to the Five Eyes partnership?

“We should be collectively raising issues, be it Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, or the US (the Five Eyes members) … those collective voices are important. But let’s just make sure we do it with the appropriate platform.”

On the eve of the arrival of Senator Payne and Pacific Minister Zed Seselja in Wellington for three days of talks starting on Wednesday, Ms Mahuta also stressed New Zealand’s commitment to Five Eyes grouping.

“The Five Eyes is a vital security and intelligence partnership for New Zealand,” she told The Australian. “(It) provides a framework to co-operate across intelligence, police, border security, defence, cyber and other security-related portfolios,” she said.

“New Zealand is a real beneficiary of the arrangement and will continue to actively engage with the Five Eyes alliance, as we always have.

“There will be some areas on which it’s useful to co-ordinate through the Five Eyes platform. But there will be other areas — human rights, for example — where we want to look at building a broader coalition of countries to take positions on issues of common interest.”

The Morrison government’s delegation to New Zealand comes after months of stress in what is one of the closest relationships between two countries in the world.

Less than three months ago, New Zealand Trade Minister Damien O’Connor set off a trans-Tasman storm — widely reported in China’s state-­controlled media — after he said Australia “should follow us and show respect” to improve its relationship with President Xi Jinping’s government.

Many in Canberra were sore at Mr O’Connor’s comments, since retracted, that came as Beijing continued an unprecedentedly wide campaign of trade retaliation on more than $20bn of annual Australian exports, including coal, wine, barley, timber and lobster.

And three weeks ago, New Zealand was the only Five Eyes member country not to join a statement of 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, that criticised the World Health Organisation investigation into the origins of COVID-19 in China.

“I don’t think it’s been a great couple of months for the trans-Tasman relationship,” said David Capie, director of the Centre for Strategic Studies at Wellington’s Victoria University.

“It’s very welcome that Marise Payne is coming when she is because I think it will provide an opportunity for some clarity around New Zealand’s settings on some of these issues,” Professor Capie said.

He said the Morrison and Ardern governments shared policy positions on many China-­related issues. “But where this government has been different has been that it has tried to find a way to express those differences with China without, frankly, ending up in the freezer,” he said.