President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo: Supplied / PMO
The Prime Minister says he would "discourage" the US from starting nuclear testing again, saying New Zealand is a "proud anti-nuclear country".
Christopher Luxon said there's been a programme of de-nuclearisation around the world, and New Zealand's position was "pretty clear".
"We don't want to see a nuclear arms race."
It comes after the United States President said he wanted to start testing nuclear weapons on an "equal basis" with Russia and China.
Luxon indicated there were other ways to test armaments through computer modelling, rather than "having to actually fire them off".
Asked whether it was something he would raise with Trump, Luxon acknowledged he might "in due course".
"It might well be something we discuss, but our position is pretty clear."
Luxon spoke to reporters at the end of a day of bilateral meetings and the first formal sessions of APEC.
He met formally with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Brunei and Indonesia, as well as informal meetings with the new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Later that evening, Luxon also spoke briefly with Xi Jinping.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Japanese counterpart, Sanae Takaichi. Photo: RNZ / Lillian Hanly
Luxon said Takaichi was excited to meet him, and vice versa because she was new in the job. It was a chance to build rapport and discuss the progress of defence and security ties between New Zealand and Japan.
Luxon's bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto went much longer than many of his other formal sit downs, lasting for more than an hour.
The pair greeted each other warmly, exchanging jokes about rugby at the top of the meeting.
President Subianto acknowledged Luxon was meant to visit earlier this year, but a change in schedule had meant the visit couldn't go ahead.
Luxon told reporters after the meeting the pair had agreed to try and arrange a visit in the near future.
"He's pretty busy. I'm pretty busy. But we are determined either he'd come to New Zealand or I'll get to Indonesia, and I'm very confident that will happen before the end of the term," said Luxon.
Luxon said their discussions focused on getting more trade between the two countries, and confrimed neither Gaza nor West Papua were discussed at all.
The reason the meeting ran long was there was "a lot to cover off" Luxon said, with both leaders speaking about their domestic plans and how the two countries could collaborate better.
"There's more opportunity that we haven't fully exploited."
Luxon indicated education and food security as areas where further collobaration could take place, and "work in a much better way".
With food security in particular, he said Indonesia had the fourth biggest population in the world, and was the "most significant economy in Southeast Asia". He called it a "key country" for New Zealand, given its part of ASEAN and part of the global south, with deep connections to the Middle East.
Global supply for red meat or dairy, Luxon said, was a lot less than the demand, and as countries become more interested in securing food for their populations, "that's where we come in".
He said they considered how to use the architecture that was already in place - such as various free trade agreements already in place, and the comprehensive strategic partnership - to grow trade.
"Our trade has grown 10 percent, but we think it could grow a lot faster and a lot more," said Luxon.
Earlier on Friday morning, Luxon - alongside the leaders of Chile and Singapore - launched negotiations for the Green Economy Partnership Agreement.
Minister for Trade and Investment Todd McClay was also there, and said the agreement was a chance to work together to seize trade and investment opportunities in the "growing global green economy", which is estimated to be worth trillions of US dollars in the next decade.
During the launch, the Sinaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said they "may be three small countries" but they had a "proven track record of pioneering innovative agreements together".
The Chilean President echoed this sentiment, saying they might be "medium or small countries", but they were important. He then listed the population sizes of the countries, saying Singapore had 6 million, and 20 million in Chile.
He guessed the population of New Zealand, saying it was 10 or 12 million, before Luxon had to correct him.
Luxon explained later that this was how innovative ideas began, pointing to APEC in particular as a place that could "birth and innovate and incubate new ideas".
He said ideas were "birthed" by a few countries that have energy for it, then "others get attracted to it". Using the CPTPP as an example.
"You never start with 21 countries from day one with it all perfectly worked out. You actually need to go on a journey of an idea that turns into a start, that gets grown and gets built."
Late on Friday night, at the Economic Leaders' Gala Dinner, Luxon managed to speak briefly with President Xi Jinping. Earlier, Luxon had told reporters he'd hoped to meet with President Xi if their paths crossed.
Luxon had acknowledged it wasn't a priority, and President Xi had already been "very generous" with his time. Luxon said if they did manage to talk it would be getting a sense of "where he's at" and "what his take is" on issues across the region.
Saturday is Luxon's last day in South Korea, before heading home in the evening. The APEC 'family photo' would take place later on Saturday.
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