25 August 2023 – A global peace network has called out the US Secretary of State’s visit to New Zealand as a threat to our peaceful reputation and not ‘good old-fashioned sports diplomacy,’ as described by our Foreign Minister.
“If Secretary Blinken was coming to New Zealand solely to support the peaceful US women’s FIFA soccer team, then Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta could justifiably welcome him as a “close friend and partner”, says World BEYOND War Aotearoa spokesman, Hon. Matt Robson, former Minister of Disarmament.
But he says the actual purpose of Blinken’s trip is to drag New Zealand further into aggressive plans for the containment of America’s economic competitor, China.
“Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta, representing New Zealand’s peace and diplomacy policies, needs to advise Mr Blinken that New Zealand, a signatory to the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, does not support NATO’s condemnation of that treaty.”
“Furthermore it does not agree with using the 400-plus US military bases from Japan to Australia, many of which are nuclear-armed, to threaten China, our largest trading partner.”
Failure to do this, and agreeing to nuclear armed NATO’s provocations against China, undermines the nuclear free status of New Zealand, and the antiwar policies that New Zealanders have developed, for which New Zealand has been praised, says Mr Robson.
“The New Zealand public deserves to be made aware, not least by the media, of the implications of Blinken’s visit and the costs and dangers of unthinking subordination of New Zealand interests to US strategy against China,” says Mr Robson.
Hon. Matt Robson, Spokesman, World BEYOND War Aotearoa.
www.worldbeyondwar.com
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