This Sunday marks the six-month anniversary of Nanaia Mahuta’s appointment as foreign minister. Geoffrey Miller looks at how she is grappling with some fundamental geopolitical challenges. In just her first six months, Nanaia Mahuta has already achieved something remarkable. She is arguably New Zealand’s highest-profile foreign minister in decades – and all without even leaving the country. Her speech to the China Council last week – and the ensuing Q&A in which she openly signalled an unwillingness to sign up to future Five Eyes statements criticising China – has proven to be a pivotal moment. It has unleashed a debate...
A new analysis by the Democracy Project of Nanaia Mahuta’s public statements and tweets over the past six months reveals some intriguing initial insights into her foreign policy agenda. By the end of Wednesday this week, Nanaia Mahuta had made 31 formal statements or speeches on foreign affairs in her time as minister. On Twitter, she had published 85 original tweets (i.e. excluding retweets of others) on foreign affairs over the same time period. Of the 31 official statements and speeches on the Beehive website, eight statements related to either Australia or the Pacific. Four were concerned with the provision...
‘Dateline New Zealand’ is my new politics programme in Arabic, English subtitles are available by clicking the CC button. In the first episode, I looked at New Zealand’s relations with the Middle East. This first episode was based on an article I wrote for the Democracy Project last year – ‘New Zealand’s surprising relationship with the Middle East’. Feedback is very welcome – e-mail geoffrey@democracyproject.nz. More details and the full transcript are available in Arabic below. انا متحمس جدا! سجلت في الأيام الماضية الحلقة الأولى من “بتوقيت نيوزيلندا” وهو برنامج عن السياسة باللغة العربية من نظر نيوزيلندي. بالطبع، انا لست...