Prime Minister Helen Clark can add another diplomatic arrow to her bow to shoot into the foreign policy debate during the election campaign.
Yesterday, Clark announced that New Zealand's invitation to the much-touted East Asia summit had finally arrived after months of careful diplomacy which involved hosting a retinue of
Asian political leaders in this country.
The summit is being touted as the first step in a ambitious plan to form a regional trading bloc to rival the European Union.
It will include the 10 Southeast Asian countries which make up Asean, plus China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Unlike Australian Prime Minister John Howard - who was forced to cave in to Asean pressure and sign a regional non-aggression pact in return for a summit invitation - Clark played an astute hand by signalling that New Zealand was prepared to sign the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation at last year's Asean summit.
She also lined up support from National leader Don Brash well in advance, to ensure the move would not become a political issue.
Clark said the summit would offer more opportunities for deeper and more inclusive regional integration between New Zealand and the Asia region.
"The Government recognises that it is vital for New Zealand to engage wherever possible in the developing regional structures.
"Roughly a third of New Zealand's foreign trade, a fifth of inward investment and a third of tourism revenues are with or from Asian countries," she said.
The December summit is not expected to result in an immediate decision by the 16 nations to form a fully fledged free trade pact.
Even the Asean group - which is negotiating a joint deal with Australia and New Zealand - does not have total free trade among its members, which include poor nations such as Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, and Cambodia.
