Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says US engagement in the Pacific will be top of her agenda in her meeting with US President Joe Biden, but that if gun control comes up she will be “open to sharing New Zealand’s experience”.

Ardern will meet with Vice President Kamala Harris at 10.30 on Tuesday morning, followed with a meeting with Biden at 11am (2.30am and 3am NZT Wednesday).

While in DC, Ardern with also be holding private meetings with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Council Co-ordinator for Indo-Pacific Kurt Campbell.

• PM will meet with Kamala Harris and Joe Biden early Wednesday morning NZT at the White House
• US engagement in Pacific and China’s foray into region will be top of agenda
• Meeting comes as war of words between China and US continues to heat up
• Positive Covid tests of officials travelling with PM appear not to have affected meeting

“Look, there'll be a number of issues on the agenda as you can imagine, but really top of mind for us alongside obviously the war in Ukraine, is the situation in our region,” Ardern said.

Both New Zealand and the US have been concerned about China’s recent activity in the region. The security deal with the Solomons last month, and the news last week that foreign minister Wang Yi was touring 10 nations in the Pacific, spruiking a proposed sweeping new security and economic pact across the region.

It takes place as the war of words between Washington and Beijing escalates. In a speech last Thursday Blinken called China “the most serious long-term threat” to world peace.

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Wang responded by saying that the US “has actually become a source of chaos that shakes the current international order and an obstacle to the advancement of the democratisation of international relations”.

Wang’s remarks came in response to a speech by Blinken pledged to work more closely with US allies and other countries to counter Beijing’s influence. While the US has accused China of undermining the international order, China rejects the order entirely as a US-led construction designed to benefit the US.

New Zealand’s position in all of this is now one of encouraging as much US involvement in the regions – especially economically – as possible, although Ardern said that it shouldn't be just as a bulwark against China.

“We will be continuing to encourage the United States to really continue and strengthen engagement in our region, including economic engagement, which is really critical to our region,” Ardern said.

“What's really important is that all of our relationships in the Pacific need to be built in their own right, not because another country is prison. This cannot all be about China.”

Ardern’s line has also been cautiously respectful, making sure she emphasised once again that, “these are sovereign nations, with their own leaders and governments that actually we should all be looking to build our relationships with”.

The prime minister also tamped down expectations before the meeting saying it “is not about announceables, it is not about new initiatives”, but a longer term investment in the NZ-US relationship.

She said that while the relationship has been maintained via Zoom through the pandemic, forming a personal rapport was an important part of the meeting.

“I would say is that it's very clear that personal relationships for President Biden are important and I'd say the same – I consider myself to operate on that same principle.”

The earlier meeting, with Harris, is expected to revolve around, among other matters, space. Although the New Zealand Government spends a tiny amount on space, the country has the fourth-biggest industry if measured by rocket launches.

“Vice President Harris also has specific portfolios around space... so that is an incredibly important part of our relationship with the United States and also cybersecurity. So I'm expecting to have conversations around some of the issues that we've talked about throughout this week,” Ardern said.

In another complication on a trip that has already been greatly complicated by Covid, the Defence Force plane that has been ferrying Ardern, her delegation and media around the US has broken down, meaning that that delegation will have to catch commercial flights home.

A shadow was earlier cast on the trip with news yesterday that two members of Ardern’s travelling party – Mfat Secretary Chris Seed and the PM’s chief press secretary Andrew Campbell – had tested positive for Covid-19. Both are isolating in San Francisco. The entire delegation was PCR tested on Monday.

It understood that the two confirmed positive results will not affect the Harris and Biden meetings. Ardern and partner Clarke Gayford, who is travelling with the prime minister, caught Covid over two weeks ago and are both fully recovered.