ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will express New Zealand’s “ongoing condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine one year on” at the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Brussels to attend a session of the Nato Foreign Ministers’ meeting.
“It is valuable to join a session of this meeting in person, to express our ongoing condemnation of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine one-year-on, and as Nato and New Zealand work to renew our formal partnership this year,” Mahuta said.
“It is important that we continue to engage with our close partners to address shared security challenges, many of which are global in nature with wide-ranging implications, including in the Pacific.
“The visit will also provide the opportunity to hold bilateral calls with a number of my counterparts from the Nato allies and our other close partners.”
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* Prime Minister Chris Hipkins speaks with Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg
Mahuta will go to Sweden for a bilateral meeting with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström.
“Sweden is the current president of the EU, and one of New Zealand’s closest European partners whose strong support helped enable the successful negotiation of the NZ-EU Free trade agreement,” Mahuta said.
NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg has said “Putin underestimated Ukrainians when he invaded Ukraine, but he also made a big strategic mistake of underestimating NATO and NATO allies.”
She will also meet President of the Swedish Sámi Parliament Plenary Assembly, Daniel Holst Vinka.
“As indigenous peoples, Māori and Sámi share many interests and already work together on a number of challenges on the international stage. This is an opportunity to deepen these connections,” Mahuta said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins spoke to Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg over the phone in February.
According to a readout of the conversation provided by Hipkins’ office, the pair discussed the New Zealand-Nato relationship, rising energy and food prices driven by the conflict, and they reiterated “their shared condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”
