Fran O'Sullivan: Key out to press New Zealand's advantage home

Prime Minister John Key is proving adept at leveraging the international ambitions of South Korea's Lee Myung-bak and Australia's Kevin Rudd to New Zealand's advantage as the impact of the financial crisis transforms the dynamics of global power.

Key did not get huge public play from his respective meetings with the two Asian political leaders in the past 10 days.

But he is clearly seeking to triangulate the relationship between the leaders of the two G20 nations and himself, and, get some runs on the board in critical areas like investment for new technologies to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

Key has assured his Australian counterpart that New Zealand will support his initiative to establish a Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute.

He has also sought Rudd's support for a proposed joint-venture scientific initiative based here which would tackle the complex issue of how to reduce methane and carbon emissions in the agriculture sector.

During Lee's state visit here, Key managed to excite the President's interest in the potential for South Korea to join the two Australasian partners in such green growth initiatives.

Lee has considerable "street cred" within his own country on this score and is determined to embrace technology-based mechanisms on the climate change front.

If Key can manage to insert himself into the interlocutory slot his predecessor perfected on the international stage during her nine years as Prime Minister, he will ensure New Zealand's voice continues to be noticed in the forums that count.

By resorting to opportunism - which Helen Clark got down to a fine art - she was able to use her position as the leader of a small, non-threatening nation to successfully promote initiatives that would simply have got up the backs of bigger nations if initiated by a China, United States or a Japan. Right now, she is seeking to parlay what Key calls her "Rolodex from heaven" into a top United Nations job.

Lee and Rudd fancy their respective countries as "middle powers", able to exert influence well beyond their respective economic weight.

This is why the South Korean President is making the global rounds in preparation for next month's G20 summit in London, laying the groundwork so that the top political leaders follow through with their stated aims to get world trade talks under way again with some concrete action.

As Lee told me when in Auckland this week, he expects the G20 political leaders will agree to ask the World Trade Organisation "to go through country by country on a proper basis and see which countries are resorting to protectionist measures and which are not".

WTO director-general Pascal Lamy would probable say: "Isn't the WTO doing that already?" Lamy will issue another "name and shame" report prior to the G20 meeting. But peer pressure on the anti-protectionist front will be simpler to orchestrate if the G20 leaders think it is their own idea.

The fact that Lee is pushing a "Global Korea" initiative to chalk up trade deals with as many partners as possible, while other bigger nations like the US have yet to even confirm their trade negotiating team, gives the President added authenticity.

The desire for "middle power" authority is why Australia's Rudd is leading the preparatory charge on the necessity to shut non-viable banks so that the world recovers quicker from the crisis.

Rudd will make this pitch in person in London during the G20 summit, leveraging Australia's position as host to some of the world's "cleanest banks" to lend authenticity to his call for toxic assets to be eliminated as soon as possible.

Key does not get to play at the G20 table.

But he seems pleased that Rudd and Lee paid him the courtesy of carefully consulting him on what stances they should take at the first meeting to be attended by US President Barack Obama.

The Lee visit also resulted in Key becoming an admirer of the South Korean President's "kick butt" approach. If local telcos had thought they could tempt the Prime Minister to waiver on National's election commitment to invest $1.5 billion in "fibre-to-the-home" broadband - they should think again. Their lobbying efforts will come to nought.

Key was so taken by Lee's story of how he wants every South Korean child - even from the poorest farming family - to be able to access educational opportunities by using smart technologies like internet protocol television run over high speed broadband, that he is sending his Communications Minister, Steven Joyce, up to Korea to study its world-leading infrastructure.

There is, of course, a commercial underline to Lee's story-telling. He made a strong play while here for Korean companies to get part of the action.

The Prime Minister's preference is for New Zealand companies to step up to the plate - not oppose the Government. But it is also clear he will not be deterred in his ambition for a step change.