New Zealand attends G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Foreign Minister Winston Peters returns to New Zealand today after a high paced programme at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Nagoya, Japan.

The G20 process brings together some of the world’s most powerful countries, and provides a platform for discussion of the challenges facing the international community including a slowing global economy, increased protectionism, challenges to the international rules-based order, and climate change.

“It was a distinct privilege to be the first New Zealand Foreign Minister to participate in a G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and to bring our particular perspective to the table on the issues that are central to our region,” Mr Peters said.

“We were able to make the case for countries to continue to reduce barriers to trade, which is essential if we are to continue to lifting people out of poverty in the Pacific, and the broader Indo-Pacific. I was also able to underline the importance of collective action on climate change – an issue which is an existential threat to some of our Pacific neighbours.”

Mr Peters also had an extensive programme of bilateral meetings with counterparts from Germany, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. He also met with Spain’s Foreign Minister, Josep Borrell Fontelles, who will soon become the European’s Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

On Monday Mr Peters will travel to Wellington to chair Cabinet in the Prime Minister’s absence before heading to Auckland to speak at the Pacific Parliamentary Forum Speaker’s Dinner in Auckland, before travelling to the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

ENDS

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