New Zealand’s foreign minister said he had raised concerns over China’s recent live-fire drills in the Tasman Sea during meetings with Chinese leaders on Wednesday.
The issue was a lack of notice given to New Zealand over the military exercises off its coast, Winston Peters told reporters in Beijing after meetings with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and vice premier Han Zheng.
“This is a failure in [our special relationship] at this time, and we’d like to have it corrected into the future,” he said.
In their meeting, Wang told Peters both countries should become partners of mutual trust and resolve “some specific differences” through dialogue, according to a readout from China’s foreign ministry.
Peters is in Beijing for a three-day visit after relations between the two countries became strained over the drills.
New Zealand and Australian officials said that China had conducted live-fire exercises in international waters between the two nations, giving little notice and forcing commercial airlines to divert flights.
China only gave “a couple of hours’ notice,” New Zealand’s defence minister Judith Collins told Radio New Zealand, rather than the expected 12 to 24 hours. A longer lead time would give airlines time to plan alternate routes.
Australia has complained more vociferously about the lack of notification. Foreign minister Penny Wong said she sought an explanation from Wang when the two met in Johannesburg last Saturday following a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of 20 nations.
China’s official Xinhua news agency made no mention of the issue in an initial report on Peters’ meeting earlier in the day with Han.
The three Chinese ships were south of Tasmania in Australia’s exclusive economic zone and were now moving west, the New Zealand defence force said on Wednesday.
Peters said he also raised China’s missile launch test last September that landed near French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone, of which “most Pacific Island nations got no warning at all” and New Zealand got “little warning.“
China was considering the issue of providing earlier notice for future naval drills, he said.
In his talks in Beijing, Peters said the return of President Donald Trump to the White House came up more than he had expected.
He didn’t provide any details, but said that both sides agreed that “perhaps we should just wait and see what happens when the dust settles.”
Peters has also voiced concerns that the Cook Islands, an independent country in free association with New Zealand, had signed a comprehensive strategic partnership and other agreements with China, without satisfactorily consulting with New Zealand.
China “needs to understand the constitutional arrangement” between New Zealand and the Cook Islands, Peters told reporters, adding that New Zealand got more information out of China on the deals than it got out of the Cook Islands.
Peters said last week his country must “reset” its relationship with its Pacific neighbour after its opaque dealings with Beijing.
The agreement spans education, the economy, infrastructure, fisheries, disaster management and seabed mining. It set off alarm bells in New Zealand due to concerns over China’s growing presence in the Pacific region and potential threats to the country’s national security.
Wang said that China respects the traditional relations between New Zealand and the Pacific island countries.
The Cook Islands is a self-governing nation and maintains free association with Wellington, sharing a head of state and citizenship rights. It is permitted an independent foreign policy, but the two countries are required to consult on security, defence and foreign policy issues.
The two diplomats also discussed trade and economic issues during Wednesday’s meeting, with Wang calling for cooperation on new growth engines such as artificial intelligence and green economy.
About a quarter of all New Zealand exports went to China in 2024.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report
