28 Mar 2024

Foreign Minister Winston Peters to visit Europe, Egypt next week

1:27 pm on 28 March 2024
Winston Peters

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced he plans to travel to attend a NATO meeting in Brussels, and meet with counterparts in Egypt, Poland and Sweden.

Flying out on Saturday, he is expected to arrive in Egypt on Monday 1 April, visit Poland on the Tuesday, attend the NATO meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, before arriving in Sweden on Friday for two days.

"This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand's traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza," Peters said in a statement.

"New Zealand can only protect and advance our interests by working with traditional partners with whom we have a shared strategic assessment of the challenges the world faces. This visit, including through my attendance at the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting, will progress those traditional partnerships."

He said the urgent humanitarian situation in Gaza would also be a focus of the trip, saying New Zealand was part of an "overwhelming international consensus demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire".