As Joe Biden and Xi Jinping engaged in their most significant bilateral talks, Foreign Affairs Minister told an Indo-Pacific audience the ‘will of the collective’ needs to prevail in geopolitical disputes
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has delivered a thinly veiled critique of China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, while pushing for peace and stability as overriding objectives in the Indo-Pacific region.
Speaking to an Indonesian foreign policy audience as part of her first trip abroad, Mahuta described New Zealand as a strong and consistent supporter of ASEAN’s central role in the Indo-Pacific, saying the country needed “trusted friends and partners who share our commitment to multilateralism and understand the importance of working together to address shared challenges”.
“We need regional architecture which promotes a rules-based approach, protects human rights, emphasises open markets, and safeguards the sovereignty of all states, regardless of their size.”
While New Zealand’s and ASEAN’s support for the rules-based international order and economic integration had brought enormous benefits, the Indo-Pacific region had become increasingly contested with rising nationalism, the undermining of democratic norms, and deepening inequalities.
“Global competition is intensifying, at a time when the need for coordinated action has never been greater,” Mahuta said.
She likened geopolitical debate to the contest of ideas within a marae. “In my culture, the marae is a contested space where ideas, leadership, direction are often challenged and disputed. But the marae is also the place where the will of the collective often prevails based on the rules and norms designed to achieve the greatest beneficial outcome, with stability and peace as its over-riding objective for all to benefit.”
New Zealand wanted its values-based approach to foreign policy to be embedded in the Indo-Pacific, as values were “critical aids for navigating challenges” and took on greater significance at a time of geo-strategic competition and uncertainty.
“We hold serious concerns over the situation in the South China Sea, including artificial island building, continued militarisation, and actions which pose risks to freedom of navigation and overflight. We call for a peaceful resolution and for international law to be upheld.”
– Nanaia Mahuta, Foreign Affairs Minister
In her most pointed remarks about China’s role in that competition, Mahuta noted that New Zealand had joined other nations earlier this year in setting out its legal position on the South China Sea, where China has been embroiled in territorial disputes with a number of ASEAN nations.
“We hold serious concerns over the situation in the South China Sea, including artificial island building, continued militarisation, and actions which pose risks to freedom of navigation and overflight. We call for a peaceful resolution and for international law to be upheld,” she said.
Asked about the Aukus trilateral defence initiative and whether it would harden strategic rivalries, Mahuta said New Zealand had received assurances that the nuclear submarines deal at its centre would be compliant with international treaties, while she understood the Aukus partners had also provided ASEAN with direct assurances about its intentions.
She followed the Government’s recent line in avoiding any direct commentary on China’s bid to join the CPTPP trade deal, saying: “I don’t think you can separate any one application out based on who the applicant is – what’s important is that common standards that are sought across the CPTPP is the basis or the threshold by which the ascension is granted.”
Mahuta’s speech came on the heels of a much-anticipated virtual meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, their first since Biden assumed the presidency.
After months of heightening tensions over Aukus, China’s military activity around Taiwan and ongoing trade dispute, both leaders emphasised the need to avoid hostilities.
Biden, Xi promote cooperation not conflict
“As I’ve said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure that the competition between our countries does not veer into conflict, whether intended or unintended. Just simple, straightforward competition,” Biden said in his opening remarks.
In turn, Xi said a “sound and steady” bilateral relationship was needed to advance the countries’ respective development while tackling global challenges such as climate change and the global pandemic.
“China and the United States should respect each other, coexist in peace, and pursue win-win cooperation.”
“Just like a global pandemic requires a global solution, so too does climate change … the way we think about a global response to climate change might well support those small island nations or developing states and the way that they can buffer the inevitable consequences of sea level rise and what that will do to their livelihoods.”
– Nanaia Mahuta
However, initial reporting of the meeting indicated there were no major breakthroughs, although there had been low expectations going in.
A White House readout of the meeting said Biden had raised concerns about China’s practices in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong as well as human rights more broadly, while Chinese media outlet Xinhua quoted Xi as warning that Taiwan independence movement and its supporters in the US were “playing with fire”.
When Mahuta was asked where the US and China could cooperate in the Pacific alongside New Zealand and Australia, she pointed to the threat of climate change.
“Just like a global pandemic requires a global solution, so too does climate change … the way we think about a global response to climate change might well support those small island nations or developing states and the way that they can buffer the inevitable consequences of sea level rise and what that will do to their livelihoods.”
