Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for meetings with other world leaders, which could culminate with the signing of an upgrade to New Zealand’s relationship with a bloc of Asian nations.
Regional security is also on the agenda. This month a New Zealand Defence Force vessel and P-8A Poseidon are in Asia working with partners like the United States and Japan, including participating in war games and monitoring North Korea.
Touching down late on Sunday night NZT, Luxon was welcomed by New Zealand’s Ambassador to the Association of South East Nations (Asean) Joanna Andersen, Malaysian Minister of Youth and Sports Hannah Yeoh, and a guard of honour.
However, unlike US President Donald Trump, who arrived in Malaysia several hours earlier, there wasn’t a large group of musical performers awaiting him. Trump briefly danced alongside the locals in what has quickly become a viral moment for the US leader.
Prime Minister Luxon has a series of bilateral meetings pencilled in for Monday. They’d be expected to include the heads of several Asian nations, possibly including Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
He’s in Kuala Lumpur primarily for the East Asia Summit (EAS), a gathering of Southeast Asian countries as well as the likes of New Zealand, Australia, Russia, and the United States. It has a focus on strategic, political and economic issues.
EAS is hosted by Asean, which is New Zealand’s fourth largest trading partner, worth just under $30 billion annually.
Along with meeting with regional leaders, Luxon is expected to celebrate New Zealand’s 50th anniversary of dialogue relations with Asean and potentially sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with the bloc, upgrading the trading relationship. Of note at this year’s Asean meeting is the ascension of Timor-Leste into the group.
While Trump is in the Malaysian capital as well, he is unlikely to attend the EAS set down for late Monday NZT.
On Sunday, he attended a ceremony to mark a peace deal between Thailand and Cambodia, which he’s claimed credit with helping achieve. The two nations stopped fighting in July after Trump threatened not to do a trade deal with either unless the conflict came to an end.
He will fly to Japan today for a meeting with its new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi.
Trump and Luxon will both attend the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) leaders’ summit later this week in Gyeongju, South Korea. Trump’s main focus there will be a highly-anticipated meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As Luxon meets and greets other world leaders, New Zealand also has Defence Force assets and personnel deployed into the region, in part to help with monitoring North Korea.
The Defence Force confirmed last week that a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon is participating this month for the first time in an annual exercise led by the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force. This is occurring around Japan, with 20 vessels and 20 aircraft involved.
“The tactical exercise, involving anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, is a multilateral exercise involving Japan, the United States, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand,” the NZDF said.
New Zealand’s Air Component Commander, Air Commodore Andy Scott, called the exercise a “fantastic opportunity to train with partners in the region, demonstrate interoperability, build on our relationships and strengthen cooperation between our forces”.
A statement from the US Navy said it helped serve as a “deterrent against regional instability and aggression”.
Following this, the Poseidon will be based in Japan to contribute to operations detecting and deterring evasions of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions resolutions on North Korea.
These sanctions are in place with the intention of persuading North Korea to denuclearise and abandon its ballistic missile weapons capabilities. Patrols, which the NZDF said take place over international waters, look for any violations, including illicit ship-to-ship transfers of banned goods, like oil or coal.
The HMNZS Aotearoa will also contribute to sanctions monitoring.
“After time in Singapore and fresh from the Five Power Defence Arrangements’ Exercise Bersama Lima, HMNZS Aotearoa, with an embarked Seasprite helicopter, has been readying for its contribution to UNSC monitoring,” said the NZDF.
Commander Rob Welford, the commanding officer, said the vessel would conduct surveillance patrols and reporting, as well as replenishing the ships of New Zealand’s partners.
“Last year, there was considerable interest shown by Chinese People’s Liberation Navy ships and we also saw Russian Federation Navy vessels as well. And then on top of that there’s the unpredictability of the country we’re enforcing sanctions on,” he said.
“Supporting the international rules-based order is a very real statement when you’re on the water up here doing the mahi.”
During similar patrols last year, the ship located four vessels of interest, questioned 62 vessels and broadcast 52 deterrent messages, the NZDF said. It also conducted nine operational replenishments of partner nations’ warships so they could stay at sea longer.
The HMNZS Aotearoa will also conduct official visits to Vietnam and the Philippines while in the region.
Luxon last year announced New Zealand was stepping up its efforts to assist with sanctions monitoring by sending a ship for the first time and increasing the frequency of aircraft deployment. New Zealand has been contributing to monitoring since 2018.
Prior to world leaders’ arrival in Gyeongju, North Korea last week fired multiple missiles from south of its capital Pyongyang, the first such tests in months from the hermit kingdom.
North Korean state media said the launches involved hypersonic projectiles that travelled north and accurately hit a land target. It was reported the missiles were capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Commentators in international media have speculated the missile launches could be a show of strength as some of the globe’s most powerful people prepare for Apec.
There have been some calls for Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to meet while the US President is in South Korea. Trump has said he is open to it, but no solid plans for such an encounter have been released publicly.
Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter for NZ Herald travelling with the Prime Minister in Asia this week.