NZ to woo S. Korea with Governor General's velvet diplomacy

Dame Sylvia Cartwright

New Zealand and South Korea have a friendly association dating back 60 years to the Korean War, when New Zealand sent a 6000-strong force to help fight the Communist invasion from the North.

The New Zealand Government hopes the bond forged in war will count in this country's favour when it comes to winning a coveted Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with one of the most dynamic economies in Asia.

Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright describes New Zealand's relationship with Korea as "very friendly".

"Korea is our seventh largest trading partner, that makes it extremely important from a trade point of view, but there many other reasons as well," she says.

It was also New Zealand's second largest provider of students in 2005, fifth largest source of tourists (over 110,000 annually), and seventh largest source of immigrants.

Around 40,000 Koreans live in New Zealand -- one per cent of the total population, almost equivalent to the population of Invercargill.

"Many people are surprised to hear that," Dame Silvia says.

"I think it shows how well they integrate into New Zealand; they are very, very good citizens, and we are fortunate to have them."

Although there has been a lot of diplomatic traffic between the two countries in recent years, it has mainly been one way.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has visited five times, and other ministers and various Trade and Enterprise officials have all been most assiduously courting the Korean connection in an effort to get a FTA.

But while Korea has concluded deals with Chile and Singapore, New Zealand's agricultural prowess counts against it.

Despite the fact NZ is are not a rice-growing nation, and therefore not a direct threat to domestic producers, agriculture is a politically sensitive area in Korea.

Furthermore, New Zealand's tariffs are already very low giving less leverage in brokering such agreements.

"It doesn't always pay to be a good world citizen," as one Ministry of Foreign Affairs functionary noted drily.

In Asia, perhaps more than anywhere else, business is all about relationships; the personal connection is vital, and a country could not have a more personable representative than Dame Silvia.

One of six children born to a Dunedin shoe salesman and his wife, she was one of the first women to study law at Otago, and went on to chart a stellar career, including presiding over the landmark Cartwright Inquiry into cervical cancer in the 1980s and a stint on a United Nations committee on discrimination against women.

Although Governor-General is not an elected position, in many countries she is regarded as having even higher mana than the prime minister because she is the representative of the Queen.

Under her tenure, the role has evolved from being largely ceremonial, into a sort of super-diplomat, at the vanguard of New Zealand's international charm offensive.

Over her five-year term, she has clocked up 13 or 14 state visits (she can't quite remember off the top of her head).

During her whirlwind four-day visit to Korea, Dame Silvia will address a range of sector groups, from women leaders to film industry chiefs, war veterans and business leaders, attend war commemorations, collect an honorary doctorate from Ewha Women's University (the oldest in the world), as well as meeting politicians and dignitaries for summit talks and state dinners.

She is pleased that the entourage will include a number of New Zealand veterans and members of Korean-New Zealand Business Council: "It cements all those messages, that we're a friendly country, we're good to do business with, and we've given something to their country in a sense."

While state talks are carefully choreographed in advance, they do occasionally "veer off" script, she says.

Dame Silvia, who has occasionally stirred opinion at home with hard-hitting speeches on issues such as child abuse and the Treaty of Waitangi, can hold her own in debate.

During her visit to Germany, the speaker of the house ditched the usual chitchat about political relations to demand "a full explanation" of recent race relations developments in New Zealand and "a fascinating discussion" ensued.

Whatever our domestic frictions, New Zealand's race relations record is actually very much admired internationally, particularly in Europe, she said.

"We tend to forget that here, but he brought it home to me."

Although her judicial career gave her a large public profile, Dame Silvia admits that being Governor-General truly makes one "public property" -- she lives in the biggest state house in the country, after all.

"You have to be on your best behaviour, you can't do anything really naughty," she laughs.

"But I tend to be pretty relaxed... it can be quite fun."

Her visit to Turkey attracted a huge amount of publicity and wherever she went in Istanbul, she was followed by a great entourage of reporters.

She noticed one journalist who "looked incredibly like Peter Jackson" and couldn't resist pointing it out to someone.

"The Turkish news reporters picked up on it and had photos of the two of us together."

With other visits, such as her most recent state visit, to Vietnam in December, there is not much time for levity between complex talks on sensitive issues, ranging from military and diplomatic relations, aid, trade and education.

But she insists she's "not a political figure".

"I don't get into the politics, I speak at a level of principle and I affirm messages.

"I am given information about subjects that might be raised and what New Zealand's position is on them, but one of the arts of the job is to know when to pass the discussion to the ambassador to pick up.... and I either dive out of it because it's getting too close to the bone, or because it's something I simply don't know enough about."

After Korea, there are visits planned for Ireland and Greece in June.

Her very last trip will be to London, "to say goodbye to the Queen", as required by protocol.

After she hands over the role to Judge Anand Satyanand in August, she will take up a role with a UN war crimes tribunal in Cambodia, to try the ageing former leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime, accused of slaughtering over a million people in the 1970s.

Dame Silvia says it's a good thing to have "a regular infusion of new blood, new ideas" in the Governor-General role, and she will be ready to move on when the time comes.

"I will be excited when I have time to be; this job is much busier than people realise... I laugh wryly when I see myself characterised as someone who has a largely ceremonial role."

- NZPA