Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, has met with Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, in Wellington.
Mr Peters said it was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017.
“Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, business, and people-to-people links,” Mr Peters says.
“Alongside areas of cooperation, it was important to acknowledge areas of difference such as human rights, including the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Tibet.”
The Ministers also discussed regional and international issues.
“New Zealand follows developments in the Pacific closely and emphasises the importance of engaging through existing regional institutions and arrangements, in particular on regional security matters,” said Mr Peters.
“We also highlighted New Zealand and China’s shared interest in a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region and raised concerns over increased tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
“New Zealand places great importance on supporting the current international rules-based order. We emphasised the constructive role China can play in responding to regional and international security challenges such as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts and deescalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula.”
The Ministers said they looked forward to further high-level visits between China and New Zealand this year and committed to holding talks on foreign affairs, trade, consular issues, the Pacific, climate change, and human rights.
Minister Wang also met with Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon and Minister for Trade, Todd McClay.
