Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She is in the United States covering PM Christopher Luxon’s visit to the Nato Summit.
Nor would he have expected that the photo every New Zealand Prime Minister wants of themselves with a US President would turn out to be the biggest diplomatic blunder.
Concern about Biden’s performance in a debate with former US President Donald Trump just ahead of the summit did not abate once it started. Instead it accelerated. Every move Biden made was scrutinised.
It ensured Luxon – along with every other leader at Nato – was asked about it. Repeatedly.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had several encounters with US President Joe Biden during his time attending the Nato summit in Washington DC. Photo / Supplied
For the first three days, Luxon managed to seek refuge in his stock line that he would not comment on US politics. That worked fine until the last day, when he finally managed to get that quick chat and the photo he had wanted with the President.
Luxon managed to tiptoe well through the questions that followed about his interaction with Biden. He said Biden had seemed engaged, “sharp” and “on top of his brief”.
Unfortunately, the photo that had just gone up on Luxon’s social media accounts told a very different story.
Luxon looked fine. But it was a merciless, brutally unflattering photo of Biden. He looked exactly the man his political enemies claimed he was.
Illustration / Guy Body
While Biden was the biggest topic in town, the summit did give a glimpse of the type of statesman Luxon might turn into.
So how did he go?
Luxon had gone into it with the goal of making sure New Zealand was noticed, hitting the right notes on Russia’s war on Ukraine, and getting himself introduced to 32 leaders of state.
His secondary mission was preparing for the future; getting to meet US Senators and members of Congress ahead of the November election.
He’s a consummate networker both by career and nature, so the latter was not problematic.
NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the ongoing unrest in New Caledonia during their meeting. Photo / Supplied
He’d zone in on the leaders he did not have meetings with at social events such as the lunches and White House dinner.
He also benefited from his predecessor’s relationships.
His bilateral meetings included former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Tight Three: French President Emmanuel Macron, Spain’s President Pedro Sanchez and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
None of them mentioned her in their introductory comments, although Sanchez mentioned working with New Zealand during Covid-19 (Spain had sent New Zealand some of its vaccines).
Most prime ministers manage to get a cluster of other leaders they can put on their speed dials. It remains to be seen who Luxon’s will be. However, he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida seemed relaxed in each other’s company – Kishida laughing frequently while they chatted ahead of a summit meeting.
With those Luxon had talks with, his modus operandi became clear.
He’d start on a personal note, throwing in something they had in common at the start of the conversation.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it was a bit of a stretch – such as his icebreaker with Senator Ted Cruz. Luxon informed him he had been the chief executive of Air NZ when the airline started its direct flights to Houston.
Trudeau was an easy one: Luxon had lived and worked in Canada for a few years.
With Senator Bill Hagerty, he talked about his recent visit to Japan – Hagerty was a US ambassador in Japan, and knew PM Kishida.
PM Christopher Luxon chatting with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Photo / Pool
With Spain’s President Pedro Sanchez, he brought up the America’s Cup, warning Sanchez there would be an influx of New Zealanders to watch Team New Zealand in Barcelona later in the year.
Sanchez asked if Luxon would be among them. Luxon said probably not and the conversation withered.
Asked later why not, he replied New Zealanders would think he had better things to do than swan around watching yachting or the Olympics.
The issues: It was supposed to be Australia’s turn chairing the meeting of the Indo-Pacific Four - the grouping of New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Korea.
However, Luxon ended up in the chair after Australian PM Anthony Albanese decided to stay at home.
He was perfectly at home in doing so. The man does his homework, he knew what he wanted to say about New Zealand’s position when it came to Ukraine and the war in Russia and he said it well.
He is also picking up the jargon of diplomacy as easily as he did the corporate jargon.
He had the usual delicate dance to do around the issue of China – as some of the European leaders voiced concern that China was increasingly becoming supportive of Russia in the war, after initially trying to remain aloof on it.
Luxon did criticise China, but in a very specific way, rather than a blunt accusation that they were aiding and abetting Russia’s war.
Instead, he criticised them for “supporting the rebuilding of Russia’s industrial base”, saying later that some of what China was supplying could be used for military use as well as civilian use.
The only sign of his rookie status was an occasional over-cautiousness about how much he could say on some matters. If uncertain, he would often revert to a stock line, clearly drilled into him by the foreign affairs officials.
He was clearly reluctant to say too much about what was talked about in his meetings, perhaps wary the other leader would look askance at it and nip a potential relationship in the bud.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's reliance on lines from his foreign affairs officials was evident during the US visit. Photo / Meta
The ease of knowing how much he can say and when he can veer away from what officials want him to say should come over time as he eases into the role.
For now, he clearly just wants to play it safe.
The wee hiccups: There were two clumsy near misses of the variety which can always catch out a rookie prime minister.
Neither were as bad as that photo, or big enough for a diplomatic incident.
The first was his observation that there were a lot of people with big egos on Capitol Hill: A quip he made when a reporter suggested Republican Ted Cruz was the most influential senator he was meeting.
It’s doubtful an American politician would disagree. Even Luxon later conceded there were big egos in most political environments, including his own offices.
The second was an unfortunate turn of phrase when he was talking about the leaders he had talked to at the dinner on the first night of the Summit: “From the Chancellor of Germany, right down to Iceland”.
The problem there is the “right down” which he tried to explain away by saying he had meant “right through”.
It must have sent a slight shiver up his spine when he later looked at the seating plan for the big White House dinner that night, and discovered he was sitting right next to Iceland’s Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson and his wife.
