Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says New Zealand’s participation in wargames near Japan and monitoring of North Korea shows “we’re following through with actions, not just sitting in New Zealand spouting off some words”.
Regional security is one of the key priorities at the East Asia Summit (EAS), which Luxon is attending in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Monday.
The forum’s membership is primarily made up of South-East Asian nations, as well as the likes of New Zealand, Australia, India, Japan, Russia and the United States.
The New Zealand Defence Force has this month sent an Air Force P-8A Poseidon to partake in an exercise led by Japan, which involves “anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare”. Others participating include the US, Australia, Canada and France.
Asked by the Herald on Monday why it was important for New Zealand to be involved in this wargame, Luxon repeated a line he often deploys when asked about regional geopolitical events: “You can’t have prosperity without security”.
To make the point, he highlighted the effect the war in Ukraine had had in driving up energy prices across Europe as well as the cost of rice and grain.
“In 2025, if you’ve got war going on and conflict going on, that is hugely destabilising to economies and therefore to people who actually end up worse off and being punished economically and really challenged,” he said.
“Equally, you don’t get to grow your economy if you haven’t got stable, peaceful settings in place.”
He didn’t believe participating risked endangering New Zealand’s relationship with China, which hasn’t taken well in the past to exercises near its waters.
“It’s not about that,” Luxon said.
“It’s just about us actually making sure that we’re not just spouting off our values and words, that we actually follow through with actions.”
After participating in the Japan-led exercise, the P-8A Poseidon, as well as the HMNZS Aotearoa, will help monitor any evasions of sanctions by North Korea.
“The work that we’ve done based out of Japan, particularly about enforcing UN sanctions on North Korea, I’m really proud of,” Luxon said.
He said New Zealand and its partners were “making a really significant contribution”.
“We’re following through with action, not just sitting in New Zealand spouting off some words. We actually are doing what we say we’ll do and following through in the way that we are.”
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 co-operation between our forces”.
A statement from the US Navy said it helped serve as a “deterrent against regional instability and aggression”.
Also on Monday, the Prime Minister met with Vietnam’s leader, Phạm Minh Chính, the head of Cambodia, Hun Manet, and India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi isn’t attending this year.
Luxon touched down in Malaysia late on Sunday night. He 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.
EAS is hosted by Asean, which is New Zealand’s fourth-largest trading partner, at just less than $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.
US President Donald Trump was briefly in the Malaysian capital, but didn’t attend EAS events.
Instead, he marked a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, which he’s claimed credit for helping to 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 flew to Japan today for a meeting with its new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi.
Trump and Luxon will both attend the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (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.
Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter for NZ Herald travelling with the Prime Minister in Asia this week.