New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon has had his first face time with US President Donald Trump on the sideline of the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit. The Herald’s Jamie Ensor was in Gyeongju, South Korea as it happened.
“No, it’s just about me doing my job,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Wednesday night in South Korea when asked whether securing a meeting with United States President Donald Trump counted as a win for himself.
The Prime Minister may not want to play up his role, but this is without a doubt a win. Using Trump’s own vocabulary, New Zealand won “bigly”.
Any time a New Zealand leader can get into a room one-on-one with the world’s most powerful man and leave it with only glowing remarks is a victory for the country.
And it doesn’t always go down like that. Just think of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s horror show at the White House at the start of the year. Things can go downhill quickly with Trump.
Sure, from the United States’ perspective, there is no real pain point with New Zealand that may aggravate Trump. This wasn’t a formal arrangement where any tensions were shared.
But one wrong word or poorly timed comment to a volatile Trump and he could have turned.
Trump, who would be the most sought-after leader on the international summit circuit, didn’t need to be in that conference room at Gyeongju‘s Hilton Hotel.
Luxon told the Herald afterwards that his Government had “let it be known” to the United States administration “that we were open to” a meeting.
New Zealand’s officials should be praised for the logistical effort of securing a slot, despite a gruelling, tight schedule for both leaders.
Regardless of our Five Eyes membership or long-standing relationship with the United States, Trump has shown no interest publicly before about meeting with Luxon. We are simply too far down the global food chain to him.
He’s had a packed international programme over the past month, including a trip to Israel and now his Asia tour of Malaysia, Japan and South Korea.
Although he’s known for his energy and for working long hours, Trump referenced the intensity of his recent travel diary twice last night.
Greeting the New Zealand leader, one of the first things Trump said (other than that he had “read” Luxon was a “good-looking man” and “it’s true”) was that it had been a “long day” and “I started five days ago”, meaning when he flew out of Washington DC.
“But anyway,” a clearly tired Trump said, before he swiftly turned on a big grin as official photographers snapped a picture of the pair, the US President giving his classic thumbs-up, followed by Luxon doing the same.
Later, Trump told reporters that he wanted to smile for them, but after five days on the road, “it’s always a little bit tougher”.
The meeting was also the night before one of Trump’s most important meetings of the year – his first sit-down with Chinese President Xi Jinping since the US leader returned to office.
International markets have trembled amid the two countries’ tit-for-tat over trade tariffs and export controls. With Trump having threatened 100% tariffs on Chinese imports into the US from this coming Saturday, you could have forgiven him for having his mind elsewhere.
The US President may have also reasonably thought he didn’t need to meet Luxon one-on-one as he could have a chat with the New Zealander at the leaders’ dinner that night.
For New Zealand, a country that relies on building such relationships with other countries to deepen trade ties, just getting in front of Trump is an achievement.
There are, of course, no tangible outcomes from the pair’s first private meeting. There is no trade deal, like some other Asian nations have received in the past few days. The 15% trade tariff applied to New Zealand earlier this year hasn’t been reduced.
But Luxon has repeatedly set expectations this trip that that wasn’t really on the cards. The priority was to build rapport and uncover some sort of commonality between the pair. That then helps when the real issues need to be discussed in the future.
That appears to have happened relatively quickly. Behind closed doors, Trump quickly brought up golf, one of his top pastimes, and New Zealand’s “great golf courses”.
He inquired what was Luxon’s favourite New Zealand course, to which the Prime Minister named Tara Iti, situated north of Auckland. Trump appeared genuinely interested in Luxon’s response.
Clearly seeing an in, Luxon told the US President he should come down to New Zealand to visit it, and he’d get former Prime Minister and friend Sir John Key to take him out on the green. Key played a round with former US President Barack Obama at Kauri Cliffs in 2018.
Luxon isn’t as big a player as Key, but he follows the sport.
They spoke of billionaire American investor Julian Robertson, who spent a significant amount of time in New Zealand and founded the likes of the Cape Kidnappers golf course. Trump asked about Robertson’s courses, noting he had been a “great guy”.
They bonded over their admiration of Kiwi golfer Dame Lydia Ko, whom Trump has previously praised on social media. Coincidentally, Luxon ran into Ko in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia a few days ago, where he was for the East Asia Summit and she was taking part in a tournament.
As this was taking place, just metres away in an adjoining room, international media, including New Zealand’s, were preparing for the eight leaders to arrive for dinner.
The only word to describe the setting, a small round table draped with a white cloth in a large conference room, is intimate. It provided a space for the leaders to speak informally as a group without officials getting in the way.
Bar leaners had been set up to allow leaders to mingle while others turned up, though they went unused, potentially due to their very close proximity to the photographers and reporters watching the politicians’ every move.
The media line became a point of contention itself as US media were later to arrive than others and jostled for position within an already very full room.
As one after another leader turned up, were welcomed by Korean President Lee Jae Myung on a red carpet and taken to the table area, they huddled in a corner as far away from the lenses as possible.
It didn’t stop the Herald hearing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney questioning “where are the Kiwis” as the leaders waited around for Luxon and Trump. Australia’s Anthony Albanese laughed loudly.
The Kiwis – or Kiwi’s – absence, alongside Trump’s, did start to become noticeable at that point. New Zealand media hadn’t been informed of the private one-on-one occurring (the US hosted the meeting and restricted access).
It became clearer what had happened, however, when Luxon and Trump walked in together. Although not one to play second fiddle, the US President allowed the New Zealander to go ahead and be welcomed first by the Korean leader.
Waiting to the side, but still of course right in the frame of the photographers, Trump couldn’t stop himself. “New Zealand,” he announced to the world.
That began an exchange which will surely become a well-remembered moment in the history of New Zealand’s relationship with the global superpower.
Luxon, who frequently jokes about his bald head in small talk, told Trump that Lee had previously given him grief for his hair (or lack thereof). Trump responded with “your hair is beautiful”.
It was obvious right then that this would be no Trump-Zelenskyy firestorm. The rapport Luxon had striven to create with the US President had developed. The relationship had been forged.
We will now see what Luxon can do with it.
Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter for NZ Herald travelling with the Prime Minister in Asia this week.