Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta fears for Ukraine peace prospects after Nato meeting as PM Hipkins confirms invitation

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has recently returned from Brussels. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has described the prospect of peace in Ukraine as “quite bleak” after a meeting with Nato while again urging China to use its influence on Russia to end the war.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been invited to a Nato meeting in Lithuania - yet another potential demonstration of support for the military alliance since former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended a summit in Madrid last year - but has yet to decide whether he will go.

Mahuta, who recently returned after meeting officials and foreign ministers of Nato countries in Brussels, has denied the meetings are a signal of an increasingly close relationship, stating it reflects instead the “regional implications” of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“We need to stay connected to members of the international community who are facing the immediate impacts of war in the region.

“The world has got a lot smaller, the potential implications, constrained supply chains, impact on natural resources, impact on maritime routes and air routes and things like that - everything’s a lot more interconnected.”

Mahuta said the war was a key focus of the Nato meeting, along with several formal bilateral meetings, including with the United States Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and foreign ministers of Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Norway and Slovenia.

“The outlook was quite bleak, it’s not a near prospect that the war in Ukraine will be over anytime soon,” she said.

“You need the two parties to have a common ground, by which to start the cessation of war.”

That included the withdrawal of troops to internationally agreed borders and for peaceful negotiations to commence, with the agreement of Ukraine, she said.

The main conversation with Nato was about what Ukraine needed to defend itself through spring, she said, with Russia expected to launch a counter-offensive.

During her meeting with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Mahuta said, they had sought an assurance of continued support.

Nato and New Zealand have talked and co-operated for more than 25 years, including the nation’s support for Nato-led efforts in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021.

Mahuta said New Zealand remained consistent on engaging where its interests were concerned.

“We should continue to assert our interests in whatever forum, whether it’s Asean, or at Nato or in the Middle East.

“We should continue to assert and engage with regional architecture that helps us say, ‘These are the things we’re concerned about, these are the interests that are at the forefront of our mind, as impacted by these global events’.”

Mahuta’s visit came shortly after her trip to China, which began the day after President Xi Jinping and officials returned from a visit to Moscow, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

She said Nato also believed China should use more of its influence over Russia to end the war.

“Decouple and derisking and engaging more with China might well be quite an important strategic approach that Nato members might consider because of the level of reliance on the trade relationship, but also, China hearing a very consistent message around how to use its influence in a way that will be looked at by the international community as a credible way of trying to see an end game to the wall.”

There was also interest in how New Zealand managed its relations with China, the country’s largest trading partner but with which many differences remain, particularly around human rights and geostrategic challenges.

“Given China’s increasing assertiveness, I highlighted that it seemed to me that China saw itself as needing to be more engaged with the challenges ahead of it,” Mahuta said.

“Obviously, it’s an important and complex relationship for New Zealand.

“So there was a lot of interest from other states about how we manage those interests, given our reliance on export markets, which mirrors many of the European countries, and also how I was seeing some of the geo-strategic tensions within the Pacific region.”