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The comments come as New Zealand faces pressure from Western countries over its reluctance to use the Five Eyes intelligence and security alliance to criticize Beijing. Also read: Want To Be Smoke Free, New Zealand Will Ban The Sale Of Cigarettes
In a speech at the China Business Summit in Auckland, Ardern said there were things China and New Zealand could not and would not agree on. However, he said these differences did not need to determine the relationship between the two countries.
“It will not go unnoticed by anyone here that as China’s role in the world grows and changes, the differences between our system – and the interests and values that make up that system – become increasingly difficult to reconcile,” Ardern said.
“This is a challenge that we, and many other countries in the Indo Pacific region, but also in Europe and other regions, are also struggling with,” he continued, as reported by Al Arabiya on Monday (3/5/2021).
China, which takes up nearly a third of New Zealand’s exports, accuses Five Eyes of conspiring to issue statements about Hong Kong and the treatment of ethnic Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. Also read: US Secretary of State: China is acting more repressively and more aggressively!
China’s Ambassador to New Zealand, Wu Xi, warned that issues related to Hong Kong and Xinjiang are China’s internal affairs.
“We hope that the New Zealand side can have a fair goal and position, comply with international law and not interfere in China’s domestic affairs so as to maintain the good development of our bilateral relations,” he said.
(esn)
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