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What to expect from Volodymyr Zelensky’s address to the New Zealand Parliament

As New Zealand’s foreign policy year draws to a close, it seems fitting that Volodymyr Zelensky will have the final word. Ukraine’s President is scheduled to address the New Zealand Parliament in Wellington by video link early on Wednesday morning, local time. New Zealand is something of a latecomer when it comes to inviting Zelensky to speak to its legislature in 2022. Zelensky did the rounds of most Western countries during the first half of the year, especially in March and April. Parliaments in the United Kingdom, United States and EU countries were first in line, but Australia took its...

Impressions from the Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi

Recently I had the privilege to attend the Global Media Congress in Abu Dhabi. This was a wonderful opportunity and I was really lucky to be invited to attend the event as a guest of the Emirates News Agency, upon the recommendation of the UAE Embassy in Wellington. It was a great chance to use and practise my Arabic and I was surprised by just how much Arabic I was able to speak and use, both with attendees at the Global Media Congress and generally with Arabic speakers on the street in the UAE. This was hugely encouraging and motivating,...

رحلة جاسيندا أرديرن إلى آسيا تعيد إحياء السياسة الخارجية المستقلة لنيوزيلندا

This is an Arabic translation of my article ‘Jacinda Ardern’s Asia trip rekindles New Zealand’s independent foreign policy’ by Yousef Abou Ammar, a freelance journalist based in Sydney. My thanks to Yousef for both translating the article and for allowing me to share it here: رأي – عودة السياسة الخارجية المستقلة لنيوزيلندا.رسالة أساسية أساسية من رحلة جاسيندا أرديرن Jacinda Ardern إلى جنوب شرق آسيا هذا الأسبوع. حضرت رئيسة الوزراء النيوزيلندية قمة شرق آسيا في كمبوديا في نهاية الأسبوع. وستتوجه إلى تايلاند لحضور اجتماع قادة الأبيك في وقت لاحق من الأسبوع. وتقوم أرديرن Ardern أيضًا بزيارة مفاجئة لفيتنام تستغرق أربعة أيام....

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Does New Zealand need to up its game with World Cup host Qatar?

As the FIFA World Cup gets underway in Qatar, it is worth looking at the state of New Zealand’s wider relationship with the host nation. While New Zealand often likes to think of itself as a small country, it comfortably outranks Qatar in both size and population. In terms of area, Qatar is just over twice the size of the greater Auckland region. And the Gulf state’s population – at just under 3 million – makes New Zealand’s own 5 million figure seem generous. But as the World Cup shows, size is no obstacle to Doha’s ambitions. By some estimates,...

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Jacinda Ardern’s Asia trip rekindles New Zealand’s independent foreign policy

New Zealand’s independent foreign policy is back. That’s a key underlying message from Jacinda Ardern’s trip this week to Southeast Asia. The New Zealand Prime Minister attended the East Asia Summit in Cambodia over the weekend. She will head to Thailand for the APEC leaders’ meeting later in the week. In between, Ardern is also making a surprise four-day bilateral visit to Vietnam. As has become customary for much of Ardern’s foreign travel, the Vietnam portion of this week’s trip is being branded as a ‘trade mission’, a strategy deployed in part to deflect potential domestic criticism of the PM...

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Is it time for Jacinda Ardern to head to the Middle East?

In her victorious election campaign in 2017, Jacinda Ardern famously called climate change ‘my generation’s nuclear-free moment’. But perhaps surprisingly, Ardern has not attended a UN climate change conference since she became New Zealand’s Prime Minister in 2017. Had New Zealand’s Covid-19 situation allowed for it, Ardern would have almost certainly joined the many other world leaders who went to COP26 in Glasgow last year. At the time, New Zealand still had strict border restrictions in place. These included long waiting lists for hotel quarantine spaces upon return – which made overseas travel by Ardern politically unpalatable. Ardern dispatched her...

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New Zealand’s relationship with India is in trouble

New Zealand’s relationship with India is not in good health. That’s the underlying message from a rare visit to New Zealand by India’s external affairs minister, Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. Jaishankar met with his New Zealand counterpart, Nanaia Mahuta, last Thursday – but only for an hour. At a press conference with Mahuta in Auckland, Jaishankar was publicly critical of New Zealand’s unwillingness to renew visas for Indian students who had left New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic and called for ‘fairer and more sympathetic treatment’. Mahuta’s response to the criticism was to pass the buck to Michael Wood, New Zealand’s...

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Jacinda Ardern’s tilt towards the West continues at the UN

Jacinda Ardern intends to continue a more pro-Western foreign policy strategy, if her agenda from a hectic week of diplomacy is anything to go by. New Zealand’s Prime Minister met with four G7 leaders – Liz Truss, Joe Biden, Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron – in various settings while she was at the Queen’s funeral in London and at the United Nations in New York. Prime Minister @JacindaArdern and I have touched base on the phone, over video calls, at summits – and now on planes. As we traveled together from London, we reflected on Her Majesty The Queen’s devotion...

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Was New Zealand’s deployment to Iraq worth it?

After more than seven years, the end is finally in sight for New Zealand’s anti-Isis deployment in Iraq. The Government recently announced that the remaining two personnel deployed to Iraq and Kuwait as part of the Global Coalition to Defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will be withdrawn by the end of June 2023. The mission has lasted far longer than the original two years that were planned. John Key, New Zealand’s then National Party Prime Minister, initiated New Zealand’s contribution towards the multilateral coalition when he sent 143 soldiers to Iraq in February 2015. Upon committing the...

Foreign fighters in Ukraine المقاتلون الأجانب في أوكرانيا

قُتل الجندي النيوزيلندي “دومينيك أبيلن” الاسبوع الماضي في أوكرانيا وهو كان يقاتل في البلد على الجانب الأوكراني. بنسبة لي كان موته خسارة مأساوية وفقد “أبيلن” حياته يناضل من أجل قضية يؤمن بها. والحالة تسلط ايضا الضوء على دور المقاتلين الأجانب في أوكرانية. مثل كثير من الدول الغربية تساعد نيوزيلندا أوكرانيا في الحرب ضد روسيا، ولكن المساعدة لا تشمل الجنود داخل أوكرانيا. وفي حقيقة هذا خط احمر في الصراع. لم يقاتل “أبيلن” من أجل المال ولكن تعتبر روسيا كل المقاتلين الأجانب مرتزقة. مشاركة الجنود الأجانب في الحرب يهدد بمزيد من التصعيد في الحرب. تقول العسكرية النيوزيلاندية إن لم تعرف أن “أبيلن”...

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