New Zealand is now in the final week of an unpredictable election campaign that has highlighted significant issues on which voters will make their choices. Asia issues and New Zealand’s role in the Asia-Pacific are central to foreign policy issues facing the country. With the exception of North Korea, however, foreign policy has received relatively little attention in public policy discussions.
The Asia Media Centre asked New Zealand political parties to share their views on foreign policy and engagement with Asia.
What positions do the parties take on issues such as New Zealand’s role in the Asia-Pacific or the Belt and Road Initiative? The Green Party, Labour Party, Māori Party, National Party and New Zealand First provided answers, shown in the links below.
New Zealand political parties on ...
Of the five parties who responded to this feature, the Māori Party and National supplied additional comments on their parties' views about Asia.
"The Māori Party is supportive of a good relationship with all nations including those in Asia as long as the rights and interests of hapū and iwi are not affected," said the party.
National said Southeast Asia was of growing importance to New Zealand.
“South East Asian countries make up one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. It's a region of growing economic importance to New Zealand and only National understands how important this relationship is.”
Expert views
Read commentary by Natasha Hamilton-Hart, Director of the NZ Asia Institute and Professor of Management and International Business at the University of Auckland, and David Capie, Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies and Associate Professor in International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, at the links below:
- Natasha Hamilton-Hart: Parties stay true to form on security issues
- David Capie: International issues missing in action in Election 2017
All responses by the parties have been published verbatim – the Asia Media Centre has not changed terminology used.
– Asia Media Centre
