Winston Peters says the US's continued role in the security and stability in the Indo-Pacific remains significant. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says critics of the government's foreign policy reset are ill-informed and shouting "impotently at clouds".
A conference on international relations in Wellington on Tuesday was dominated by talk about the great power competition between China and the US, and Peters said the only "radical repositioning" was in the increased tempo of diplomacy, to make up for the former government's "torpor".
"We leave it to the small cabal of ill-informed critics of our foreign policy approach to shout impotently at clouds. They are good at that."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is on his first visit to China, where he will meet China's top three leaders - including President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang.
Labour's Phil Twyford, speaking at the same Institute of International Affairs conference today, quoted Australian critic Hugh White, saying the AUKUS military pact was more likely to provoke China than deter it.
The prime minister would have to try to unify opposing tensions in his foreign policy, between portraying China as a special trade partner, versus a military threat, Twyford said.
"I have no doubt that his Chinese hosts will be watching very carefully to try to read the prime minister's sense of the relationship and where New Zealand wants to go with it.
"But right now I think that contradiction is a vulnerability."
AUKUS is under review by the US.
New Zealand is still considering joining the pact's 'Pillar Two', but has not been invited to do so, and Labour has rejected such a move.
Peters questioned how often the country's foreign policy reset was being challenged "without any evidence" by those "who should know better".
"The change in the US Administration in January has inevitably generated changes in the priorities and direction of US foreign policy.
"But the significance of the US's continued role in the security and stability in the Indo-Pacific and as an essential economic partner remains, and this continues to be the focus of our engagement."
The Chinese ambassador had told him the relationship with New Zealand was "excellent", he said.
"Our long-standing political connections enable frank and comprehensive discussions on areas of disagreement, including those that stem from our different histories and different systems."
Professor of International Relations at Massey University Bethan Greener told the conference that Luxon's visit could provide new indicators.
New Zealand had an outsize role in providing a "signal" to China, she said.
"For example, if we decide to join AUKUS then we are making a quite significant choice in their eyes... would be definitely be putting some more distance between ourselves and China.
"So I think anything in the security space that looks to be colder will be of significant concern to Beijing."
Dr Jason Young of the NZ Contemporary China Research Centre told the conference that Chinese analysts were more interested than before in New Zealand's strategic posture.
"I think there's what I would consider a very unrealistic expectation in China for New Zealand to have more strategic clarity and strategic autonomy," Young said.
Twyford said New Zealand had to resist going down the path with Australia - even though it was an ally - of becoming a "force multiplier" for the US, such as in a possible war over Taiwan.
Geopolitics expert Dr Reuben Steff of Waikato University said it was shaping up to be a post-liberal world, and New Zealand might have to choose partners less based on shared values, and more on "hard" shared interests.
One solution to responding to the rising risks without taking sides could be a demilitarised compact with Pacific islands, Steff said.
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