Editorial: Nato trip could help PM in tight election race
Foreign policy is well down on voters’ priorities for the upcoming election, but an important trip overseas might help a leader in a very tight race.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins follows meetings in Brussels and Stockholm with attendance at the Nato Leaders Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, tomorrow NZT.
The visit to Belgium yesterday highlighted the New Zealand-European Union free-trade agreement, carrying on the theme of economic progress from Hipkins’ trip to China. And Sweden is hoping to follow Finland into Nato membership but that move has been held up by Turkey.
The most important membership debate to be held at the summit will be whether Ukraine should be fast-tracked into the alliance. Some experts believe it would be the key to long-term security for Ukraine and be a strategic boost for Nato. There are also fears of what it could mean for the war.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pushing hard for membership, and at the weekend received the backing of Turkey’s maverick leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg at the weekend marked the 500th day of Russia’s war in Ukraine, saying Nato’s ties with Kyiv would be upgraded at the summit with Zelenskyy in attendance.
Hipkins might not have time on this trip to visit Ukraine but could potentially meet Zelenskyy.
The leaders of New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea have been invited as Nato’s Asia-Pacific partners and will reportedly hold a sideline summit while there.
Seoul has featured in news reports about America’s controversial decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs to fire at Russian troops in dug-in positions on Ukrainian territory.
Much of the artillery ammunition being used in Ukraine’s counter-offensive has come from South Korea’s supplies. US President Joe Biden said the effort had “run out of ammunition” — an admission the fightback is difficult and going very slowly.
The cluster bomb use is being presented as a pragmatic way of enabling the US to keep sustaining Ukraine’s need for ammunition to defend itself in the coming months.
But such bombs are prohibited in more than 100 countries. Major Nato nations such as Germany, France and Britain are signatories to the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions. They release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill or remain an unexploded danger contaminating the surrounding land.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said: “We recognise that cluster munitions create a risk of civilian harm from unexploded ordnance ... But there is also a massive risk of civilian harm if Russian troops and tanks roll over Ukrainian positions ... because Ukraine does not have enough artillery.”
For Hipkins, the visit is about representing New Zealand at a crucial meeting on the most important global political issue.
In a foreign policy speech last week before he left for Europe, he said: “One of the advantages of going to Nato is I get to meet the leaders face to face”.
He said of the country’s foreign policy: “Our approach has always been that we are consistent in asserting our interests, we are predictable as we advance our values and we are respectful as we engage in our relationship with China.”
From a political point of view, getting to appear as a leader among world leaders is an advantage any prime minister has over election rivals.
It’s a bipartisan task and can help reinforce existing voter perceptions. For Hipkins, it plays to his strengths with voters of being stable, methodical and experienced.
So overseas events that help him appear consistent and predictable help his cause at home.