Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern highlighted China’s human rights abuses and called for nuclear disarmament during her speech at the Nato Leaders’ Summit overnight.
Ardern said her speech displayed the country’s “fiercely held independent foreign policy” and commitment to standing for peace and human rights.
Her three-minute “intervention”, which is what Nato calls speeches, touched on the invasion of Ukraine, climate change, and condemned states “willing to challenge international rules and norms”.
She said Russia was targeting New Zealand as part of a “mis and disinformation campaign”, despite the country’s geographic distance down in the South Pacific.
While condemning Russia and voicing her concern over China’s willingness to break international norms, she started her speech with a clear note that New Zealand did not want to expand its military alliances.
She said making the relationship with Nato clear was important, mainly for those who weren’t familiar with the arrangement.
New Zealand is not a formal member of Nato, but is a partner of the military alliance. It had been invited to the Nato summit as one of the “AP4”, Asia-Pacific partners of the alliance which also include South Korea, Japan and Australia.
She said Russia’s invasion was not just a war against Ukraine, but “a war of Russia versus all those who hold a basic sense of humanity and chose to act on it”.
“I also come with a request,” she said. “That we do not allow the legacy of the war in Ukraine to become an arms race, or an even more polarised and dangerous world.”
“New Zealand is a Pacific nation. Our region, bears the scars of decades of nuclear testing. It was because of these lessons that New Zealand has long declared itself proudly nuclear-free. Some may observe this status and assume us to have the naive privilege of such a position. I would argue, the world can’t afford anything less.”
On China, she said it was clear the country was becoming more assertive and a response was needed.
But she stressed that New Zealand wanted to see more diplomatic responses, and said internationalism rather than military alliances were important for global stability and security.
“We must stand firm on the rules-based order, call for diplomatic engagement and speak out against human rights abuses at all times when and where we see them,” she said.
Asked why she named China specifically, Ardern said she had “seen escalation in our region”.
She delivered the speech in front of the heads of government from the Nato members, including US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Shortly before delivering her speech, Ardern bumped into Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau - leading to an impromptu meeting between the two leaders after the speeches concluded.
