Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Queenstown this afternoon at the annual Australia-New Zealand Leaders’ Meeting.
The two leaders have spoken about “geopolitical tensions, issues of trade and economic relationships, and conflict in the world,” Albanese said.
Albanese — accompanied with his fiancée Jodie Haydon — was welcomed with a pōwhiri by Ngāi Tahu, which he thanked as “warm” and “generous”.
He said it was his third visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister but had been “many more times than that” over “many, many years”.
Saying the last time he was in Queenstown, he came with a backpack on “to this extraordinary, beautiful part” of not just New Zealand, but the world.
Economic challenges, security and defence, and regional and global issues were on the agenda for the two leaders. (Source: 1News)
Albanese agreed with Luxon “about the uncertain world that we’re in, and there’s no question that that is the case”.
“There is one thing that’s certain, that is Australia and New Zealand stand together.”
He said the two countries have a “seamless economic relationship” between “our family, the Pacific Island family”.
Luxon has said Australia is our only ally and a vital economic partner, “with two-way trade of $32 billion, I look forward to discussing what more we can do as we tackle economic challenges on both sides of the Tasman”.
Albanese said he hoped “this is the first of many very successful meetings that will happen here to advance the interests of New Zealanders here domestically, but also in international forums as well.”
Luxon later said in a statement that he “valued the discussion about our respective economic plans. The crossover between New Zealand’s Going for Growth agenda and Australia’s productivity agenda provides plenty of cooperation opportunities”.
Luxon answers questions on Gaza and China
Luxon and Albanese both agreed that they wanted to see a ceasefire in Gaza and a two-state solution when asked about the ongoing conflict with Israel.
When asked if Australia would recognise Gaza as a state Albanese responded, “it’s a matter of when not if”.
He said Australians “want to see a ceasefire, they want the killing to stop they want to see the hostages released and they want to see peace in the region”.
Luxon agreed, saying the military action and lack of humanitarian aid “violates humanitarian law”.
“The military action we’ve seen in not the answer… it comes through diplomacy and dialogue.”
“That’s why you’ve seen both of our foreign ministers sign a statement today… to make that very clear”.
Luxon also spoke about both countries “successful visits” to China recently which is a “significant player in the world and a prominent feature in global affairs”.
“We have an approach of co-operating where we can agree and disagree where we must.
“We have different systems, different values and we’ll stand up for those at different times, but partners talk about the difficult stuff and talk the differences too, that was the nature of my conversations with the Chinese leadership.”
