New Zealand's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters attends a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with Indo-Pacific partners at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 4 April 2024;
Credit: Reuters/Johanna Geron/Pool/File Photo
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand is committed to working more closely with NATO partners to support collective security and expects to conclude talks on its partnership agreement with the alliance in the "coming months," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Friday 5 April 2024.
"New Zealand is committed to working together with NATO partners to contribute to collective security, such as through our support for Ukraine's self-defence," Peters said after attending the NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels on Wednesday 3 and Thursday 4 April 2024.
Peters said the outcome of the war in Ukraine would have major impacts on global security, "and that is why New Zealand must be prepared to do its part."
New Zealand has been negotiating a new type of partnership with NATO as the alliance shifts all its partnership arrangements to a new model called an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme.
"We expect to conclude this partnership in the coming months, agreeing tangible areas of cooperation," Peters said.
Peters will travel to the United States and is expected to meet next week US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to discuss major global and regional security challenges, his office said.
He will address the UN General Assembly on New Zealand's "deep concerns about the situation in Gaza." Peters will return to New Zealand on 14 April 2024.
