Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs
14 June 2006
Speech Notes
Peters speech at reception for Fulbright Scholars
Delivered at 5pm, 14 June
Banquet Hall, Parliament
Minister Maharey, Mr Burnett, Fulbright grantees and families, Fulbright Award sponsors and Fulbright alumni; ladies and
gentlemen.
It is a pleasure to be here today to present the Fulbright Awards, an integral and long-present facet of the bonds
between New Zealand and the United States.
This relationship is productive and forward-looking, and is based on shared values, a strong belief in liberty, justice,
human rights, and the rule of law.
We stand firmly together as partners in bilateral dealings, regional endeavours and international undertakings. The New
Zealand government is committed to the relationship with a key objective being the strengthening of contacts between the
two countries.
Without doubt, the Fulbright Award winners here tonight will play a role in deepening our friendship with the United
States. The significant contribution of the Fulbright program, combined with the strong and reciprocated support and
commitment of the two governments, has added an important dimension to our relationship nearly sixty years on since the
program began.
The vitality in our relationship comes from the many links between our peoples. Thousands of New Zealanders and
Americans have lived, studied or worked in each other’s country, gaining an appreciation of each other’s lifestyles and
traditions.
People-to-people ties underpin our political and economic relationship. For over a century and a half they have provided
the foundation for its growth.
Nowhere is this more significant than in field of the education. The Fulbright Program, in particular, has provided our
countries’ brightest students with opportunities to pursue graduate study on each other’s shores, enriching both our
nations in the process.
It was Senator J. William Fulbright who said: “Educational exchange is not merely one of those nice but marginal
adjuncts of international affairs but rather, from the standpoint of future world order, probably the most important and
potentially rewarding of our foreign policy activities.”
Fulbright New Zealand has been an integral part of New Zealand relations with the United States. Since the establishment
of the Fulbright Program in New Zealand in 1948, there have been more than 1300 New Zealand and 1100 American recipients
of these prestigious awards.
To those who will receive awards tonight, in receiving a Fulbright Award you join other notable New Zealand Fulbright
Scholars including Nobel Prize winning scientist Alan MacDiarmid; writers Bill Manhire and Roger Hall; former Prime
Minister Sir Wallace (Bill) Rowling; Dame Marie Clay; Dame Anne Salmond, and International Court of Justice judge Sir
Kenneth Keith.
There is great value in talented New Zealanders studying overseas. The contacts and networks you build with other future
leaders from the United States and the rest of the world will benefit you individually but these networks combined with
the opportunity to study and conduct research with leading professors and researchers will also benefit New Zealand in
the longer term.
Similarly, let us welcome the American recipients of Fulbright Awards who are already in New Zealand. Your time in New
Zealand will be challenging, but make sure that you take advantage of the many opportunities that New Zealand has to
offer, to ensure that your time here will be productive and fulfilling both personally and professionally.
We must also acknowledge the alumni, sponsors and others involved in the Fulbright Program. Your support and ongoing
commitment to this program illustrates the strength, vitality and enduring nature of the Fulbright Program and we hope
that in future years we will see many of this year’s Fulbright grantees returning to support and share the knowledge and
experience they have gained.
The people gathered here tonight illustrate that more that nearly sixty years on, the Fulbright Program in New Zealand
has lived up to its founder's vision of promoting friendship, knowledge and understanding between the people of the US
and New Zealand.
Thank you.
ENDS