新西兰中共中国

新西兰总理为外长对华政策降温：可以更广泛的组织去应对中国而不是只有五眼外长有呼吁降低对华依赖

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is adamant that New Zealand’s new reticence about issuing statements via the Five Eyes alliance is not a backdown to China.

Her comments come after Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta noted New Zealand’s discomfort with the “expanding remit” of the Five Eyes partnership.

Ardern was asked by Australian morning show ABC News Breakfast if this risked sending a signal to China that New Zealand was not “one” with its Five Eyes partners on issues of democracy and human rights.

Ardern rejected this, saying instead that New Zealand just believed that the Five Eyes group was not the best platform to deliver those messages.

“Those collective voices are important, but let's make sure we do it with the appropriate platform,” Ardern said.

She said those groupings could be wider and include countries like Germany if not restricted to the Five Eyes group – and could be as narrow as just Australia and New Zealand, who issued a joint-statement on China recently.

“Is that best done under the banner of a grouping of countries around a security intelligence platform, or it best done around a group of countries with shared values - some of which might not belong to that five eyes partnership? We should be collectively raising issues – be it Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, the United States – or, say, Germany, and others.”

Mahuta’s speech also called for New Zealand to reduce its economic reliance on China, which is its largest trading partner.