WELLINGTON: New Zealand\u2019s Foreign Minister Winston Peters will touch down in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit as relations between the two countries are strained after Chinese Navy vessels conducted live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea.
\nNew Zealand and Australia officials said that China had conducted live-fire exercises in international waters between the two nations, giving little notice and forcing commercial airlines to divert flights. The three ships are currently around 280 nautical miles (519 km) east of Tasmania, outside of Australia\u2019s exclusive economic zone, the New Zealand Defense Force said on Monday.
\nNew Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on Monday the limited notice that China had given that it would undertake live firing exercise would be raised in Beijing.
\n\u201cThere is nothing illegal here in terms of they are compliant with international law,\u201d said Luxon. \u201cThe issue for us is … we\u2019d appreciate a little bit more advance notice particularly on what is a busy air route.\u201d
\nChina\u2019s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
\nPeters\u2019 visit to China is part of a trip that includes stops in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and South Korea. In Beijing he will hold talks with senior Chinese leaders, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
\nPeters said last week in a statement he would discuss with Chinese officials the bilateral relationship, as well as Pacific, regional, and global issues that are of interest to both countries.
\n\u201cChina is one of New Zealand\u2019s most significant and complex relationships, encompassing important trade, people-to-people, and cultural connections. We intend to maintain regular high-level political dialogue with China,\u201d Peters said.
\nPeters has also voiced concerns that the Cook Islands, an independent country in free association with New Zealand, had signed a comprehensive strategic partnership and other agreements with China, without satisfactorily consulting with New Zealand.
\nJason Young, Director of the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Center at Victoria University in Wellington, said while questions around challenging issues such as the Cook Islands deal and the People\u2019s Liberation Army Navy\u2019s activities in the Tasman Sea would be asked, there would also be discussion around further high-level visits and trade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WELLINGTON: New Zealand\u2019s Foreign Minister Winston Peters will touch down in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day visit as relations between the two countries are strained after Chinese Navy vessels conducted live firing exercises in the Tasman Sea. New Zealand and Australia officials said that China had conducted live-fire exercises in international waters between the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":77518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77519,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77499\/revisions\/77519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}