SYDNEY (Reuters) – New Zealand’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, will leave for China on Tuesday to meet her counterpart Qin Gang on the first such visit by a New Zealand minister since 2019.
Mahuta said she would raise New Zealand’s concerns about key security challenges at the meeting in Beijing, such as the “illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine”, and advocate for outcomes reflecting its values on issues such as human rights.
“New Zealand’s relationship with China is one of our most important, complex and wide ranging,” she said in a statement. “I intend to discuss areas where we co-operate, such as on trade, people-to-people and climate and environmental issues.”
The trip follows the easing of COVID-19 travel curbs between the countries, she said.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Alasdair Pal and Clarence Fernandez)
