Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta is not denying that she received an hour-long dressing down from her Chinese counterpart earlier this year, though she isn’t describing it that way.
And Mahuta told reporters this morning that it didn’t damage the New Zealand-China relationship, with the Prime Minister’s current visit being proof of that.
Her comments follow an article in The Australian which said Mahuta was “harangued for a whole hour” by Qin Gang while she was in Beijing in March.
An anonymous source told The Australian that Mahuta also pushed back on Qin’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ approach.
Asked whether she was harangued, Mahuta said: “New Zealand’s interests were put forward in a very robust way and, similarly, China put forward their issues in a robust way.”
There was disagreement over militarisation of the Pacific, which New Zealand is against, while China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year.
Mahuta’s trip to Beijing was the first in-person meeting between senior New Zealand and Chinese figures since former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told US President Joe Biden that a Chinese military base in the Pacific would “fundamentally alter the strategic balance of the region.
Mahuta said the ability to have robust discussions with China was a sign of a “mature” relationship.
“I would say that China is very assertive in the way that it conveys its interests.
“The fact that we were able to achieve an invitation for our Prime Minister to visit China reflects the nature of the relationship, how mature it is, the fact that we can have robust discussions and still be able to take a trade delegation over there.”
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, who is in China and will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later today, said that Mahuta had described the meeting to him as “constructive”, with areas of agreement and disagreement.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins arrives in Beijing. Photo / Nathan Mckinnon-Pool
State media in China has this week praised New Zealand’s foreign policy as an example for other western countries, and Hipkins for not being drawn into the debate on whether Xi is or is not a dictator.
Mahuta and Defence Minister Andrew Little were meant to meet their Australian counterparts this week, but those meetings have been postponed.
Asked if the visit to China was the reason, Mahuta said: “The main thing with Australia is that they are close partners. We want to have a full conversation. The meeting was postponed due to scheduling issues.”
National Party foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, supported Mahuta and her description of the meeting in Beijing.
“I’ve read the story [in The Australian] and I’m not sure that that’s the interpretation that should be entirely put on it. I’m sure there was an exchange and it would have been vigorous both ways,” he said.
“The report has come from a third party. The minister herself has not acknowledged that there was any difficulty, and I think that’s where it sits.”
Asked if there was any mischief at play with the timing of the article given Hipkins’ visit to China, Brownlee said: “I don’t think we should read too much into that. Remember that we can have those sort of squabbles with Australia, but we’re still pretty much cousins.”
He didn’t think Chinese officials or ministers were any more assertive than others.
“They always approach any of the meetings that I’ve ever been in with the mutual respect that always goes alongside diplomatic discussions.
“China has a position and they’ll fight for that. We want to make clear that we do not think that the militarisation of the Pacific is good for this country or any other countries in the Pacific.”
