Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese last visited Aotearoa in 2023. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit New Zealand this weekend, for the annual leaders' meeting with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The two leaders will meet in Queenstown on Saturday and Sunday, with Luxon saying he believes the relationship is the best it's ever been.
New Zealand and Australia take turns hosting the yearly fixture, which allows the prime ministers to discuss the bilateral relationship, and their priorities for the year ahead.
Albanese last visited New Zealand in 2023, to meet with then-Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
Luxon said there was no closer friend to New Zealand than Australia.
"The Australia-New Zealand relationship is in really fantastic shape. They are family, they are our only ally. In a world of incredible uncertainty, there is a tremendous bedrock of certainty in the relationship between Australia and New Zealand."
Luxon said he had known Albanese for a long time, and the two got along well on a personal level and a leader-to-leader level.
The two have known each other since Luxon's Air New Zealand days, when Albanese was Australia's transport minister.
Two-way trade between the two countries is worth $32 billion.
Luxon said the two countries had been deliberate at organising meetings between ministers and their counterparts.
"We'll talk in some detail about our respective economic challenges and how we can work together to build our economies on both sides of the Tasman. We'll talk obviously about security and defence ties, and obviously our observation of regional and global issues, and then also about our people-to-people connections," Luxon said.
"This is a relationship in outstanding heart, I think it's the best it's ever been."
Albanese will be welcomed by Ngāi Tahu at a pōwhiri. He will also participate in a business roundtable with the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
