[ad_1]
New Zealand’s new foreign minister has said the country could help negotiate a truce between Australia and China’s regional heavyweight with the two nations caught in a growing trade and diplomatic dispute.
Nanaia Mahuta said on Tuesday that hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation high-profile summit next year represents an opportunity for New Zealand to bring both parties to the table.
“Do I think there could be an opportunity for New Zealand to create a different environment and have a conversation? Yes, I do, ”Mahuta said.
“Hosting Apec could well be the opportunity … but both parties will have to be willing to come together and compromise in some areas where they currently disagree.”
Relations have deteriorated due to new investment laws and foreign interference in Australia, calls for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus and Chinese restrictions on Australian exports.
Tensions worsened last month after a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry published a digitally manipulated image of an Australian soldier holding a bloody knife to the throat of an Afghan boy. New Zealand expressed concern to China about the use of the image.
“I don’t think Twitter diplomacy can be achieved when misinformation is promoted through social media,” Mahuta said. “We need to go back to tried and tested diplomacy, which is dialogue and ensuring that the doors are open for people to solve some challenging problems.”
Alexander Gillespie, a law professor at the University of Waikato, said New Zealand was in a good position to try to negotiate some kind of calm.
“There is no guarantee that getting both parties to sit down and talk calmly will work,” he said. “It would be a very, very, long road ahead, but it would be heading in a different direction than where we are currently heading.”
The first Maori woman to hold the position, Mahuta highlighted the fact that New Zealand whakapapa, or kinship connections, return to the Asia region. “That allows us to navigate our relations with China perhaps a little differently from other countries,” he said.
Mahuta joined his counterparts from Five Eyes intelligence partners – Australia, the UK, Canada and the US – in condemning China for disqualifying lawmakers in Hong Kong. This enraged China, which reacted by warning the Western alliance that it could be “poked in the eye.”
Under Jacinda Ardern, whose government won a second term in October, New Zealand criticized China’s lending to the small Pacific islands, raised concerns about Uighur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, and backed Taiwan’s participation in the World Organization. Health despite a warning from Beijing.
Little known outside of New Zealand, Mahuta was a surprise choice as Ardern’s foreign minister in the country’s most diverse cabinet yet. his moko kauae, or facial tattoo, has attracted a lot of attention.
“Curiosity is the key word,” he said when asked how people have reacted.
