Are there foreign policy challenges looming for NZ in 2022?

Highlights

• New Zealand faces several foreign policy challenges in 2022.
• The country’s top priority is its relations with China and how to balance it.
• Emerging as a major voice for climate change is another one.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed new challenges for all countries due to forced isolation, border closures and supply chain disruptions. With China’s assertion in the sea and land growing, security challenges the world over have increased, thereby putting pressure on foreign policies of all countries.  

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New Zealand is also facing a number of foreign policy challenges. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it almost lost its diplomatic connection with the world. 

When New Zealand opens its borders this year, the biggest challenge will be to reconnect with the world.  However, the question is how to engage with the world as China poses new risks. There is a need for New Zealand to strike a balance between its image as a rule-based country and its relations with China. In 2021, New Zealand had an ambiguous stance for China, but with increasing tensions between China and Taiwan and conflicts in cyberspace and space, New Zealand has a tough task ahead.

Few foreign policy challenges that New Zealand faces for 2022 are:

China and its stance

New Zealand’s relationships with China are very complex. While China is the most favoured trading partner of New Zealand, there are many actions of China that go against rule-based values of NZ. So far, New Zealand has had a very ambiguous or contradictory stance towards China, but that might not be sustainable in 2022. The challenge from China is multi-layered. While in 2021, China’s treatment of Uyghur in Xinjiang and its crushing of Hong Kong’s democracy have all raised an alarm in New Zealand, it stood with partners in condemning China sometimes, but many a time kept out of it.

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The challenge is multifaceted and in some cases not that simple as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitted in an interview with Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations. She said that New Zealand would continue to engage with China but would disagree where it was needed, particularly in matters concerning human rights. Till date, NZ has been able to keep well as it engaged with China in terms of trade but also joined the chorus with its Western partners to condemn certain actions.

However, in 2022, according to foreign policy experts, New Zealand will face increasing pressure to join Australia, the United States and other partners in condemning China’s behaviour. Towards mid-2021, Ardern had said in a statement that the differences between the two countries were becoming harder to reconcile.

New Zealand is a small country and needs a stable environment and rule-based system to operate, and if any country is disruptive, it will have to take a harder stance.

In 2022, New Zealand will find it increasingly difficult to strike a balance between China’s brazen behaviour and its own bilateral equation with China.

Climate Change leadership

New Zealand has been at the forefront of the climate change movement. It needs to do more in 2022, to get the countries on board with policy changes. In 2022, New Zealand will have to use foreign policy to push friends and allies to make commitments, but also convince China to counter climate change.

New Zealand will have to play a big role in mobilising the movement on climate change and collaborate with world leaders on it. In addition, it will also have to be ready to respond to the natural disasters that befall its neighbours in the Pacific.

The Pacific region is likely to face several cyclones, according to a forecast by the National Institute of Weather and Atmospheric Research (NIWA).

Good Read: La Nina: Colder winters & ensuing energy crisis in Asia

Also Read: What’s on offer in Biden’s US$2-trillion Green Energy Investment Bill?

Immediate Neighbourhood-Pacific

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Defence minister Peeni Henare emphasised that New Zealand’s priority was the Pacific both from a foreign policy and security’s point of view.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for economies of the Pacific’s countries. Due to a lack of travel and international tourists, the economies suffered. Also, Pacific workers could not travel to NZ and Australia for part-time jobs. Supply chain disruptions also saw the worst phases in these countries. New Zealand faces the tough task of getting these economies back on their feet and preventing them from taking more debts.

New Zealand is also worried about China’s growing influence in the Pacific. According to analysts, if NZ wants a stable environment, it will have to stem China’s growing influence. Last month, NZ had to send its troops to the Solomon Islands.

Resume active diplomatic ties with countries

After the pandemic, it will be a challenge to revise connections and rebuild them. New Zealand is dependent on the goodwill of its partners in the Western world. To this effect, it has already started making an effort with the foreign minister undertaking a seven-country tour in November 2021 and the climate change minister attending COP26.

Further, in 2022, New Zealand will have to reconnect with countries and establish meaningful diplomatic relations.
Also Read: Australia loses ‘unprecedented’ number of foreign diplomats in pandemic