By Anneke Smith on The Post (paywalled)…
Labour would harden New Zealand’s stance towards the United States in favour of what it’s calling an “independent, principled and unafraid” approach to international affairs.
Its foreign affairs spokesperson, former human rights lawyer Vanushi Walters, set out how her party would handle foreign policy at Parliament on Wednesday morning, as part of Diplosphere’s foreign policy election series.
She acknowledged Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters’ service – especially in the Pacific region – before saying she disagreed with his view of what New Zealand’s independent foreign policy meant.
Peters criticised “those on the left” for deploying “megaphone” diplomacy in his capstone speech of the term, accusing them of conflating New Zealand’s independent foreign policy with its national identity that risked constraining – rather than expanding – its agency in the decades following.
Read the full story on The Post (paywalled) HERE. Or on Radio NZ HERE.
