John Key used his speech to the UN General Assembly to announce New Zealand is making a bid for a seat on the Security Council 2015-16. Labour supports the idea of going for a Security Council seat, in fact the preparatory work began under the last Government, but the PM is going to have to do a lot more that is real and positive if a bid is going to get any traction.
Unfortunately Mr Key’s speech to the General Assembly was long on apple pie statements not terribly well backed up by policy and actions.
He said “Climate change demands innovation and a global response. The world cannot afford to contemplate failure at Copenhagen.” And yet his Government is taking an underwhelming emissions reduction target of 10-20% by 2020 to Copenhagen, a figure that if adopted by the rest of the developed world would be insufficient to get China and India on board as must happen.
The Prime Minister headed off to New York saying he would push the anti-nuclear issue. In his speech he noted the historic moment to advance the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation agenda, and said New Zealand stands ready to play its part. But then…no punchline, only that New Zealand would continue its support for next year’s review of the Non-Proliferation Treaty which aims to stop nuclear weapons from spreading. No mention of the growing call for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would get rid of all nuclear weapons including those held by the US, Russia, China, Britain and France. A missed opportunity.
In what was presumably a nod to Helen Clark’s new post, he said New Zealand is “naturally proud of the efforts of the UNDP to strengthen its focus as the UN’s largest development agency on poverty and on the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals”. This from a Government whose foreign minister can barely conceal his contempt for the UN or the MDGs, who stripped out $194 m from the next three years’ spending on aid, and who is merging the highly regarded overseas aid agency NZAID back into the foreign ministry.
Mr Key stated New Zealand’s strong support for the International Criminal Court which holds individuals and countries accountable to international law. But just this week the Government rejected a modest proposal from Green MP Kennedy Graham that would have required the Attorney General to provide Parliament an opinion on the legality under international law of any proposed deployment of New Zealand troops.
The Prime Minister said he was proud of the role New Zealand played in the negotiation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. But if such an opportunity came up again, for New Zealand to step out ahead of the pack and advocate on an important issue that our old powerful allies were not fully supporting, you have to wonder if John Key would grasp the nettle.
New Zealand has won considerable kudos for its independent foreign policy. We have a reputation won not by apple pie but through actions: the anti-nuclear policy, the decision not to join the invasion of Iraq, the trade agreement with China, and actions like Phil Goff’s leadership on the Cluster Munitions Convention.
When John Key recently acceded to the United States’ request for our SAS to fight in an unwinnable civil war in Afghanistan he signaled independence is no longer a core value in our foreign policy. If New Zealand is to mount a successful bid for the UN Security Council he may well find a bit of that independence might come in useful.
I’m disgusted about Afghanistan
Let’s hope that India and China do get on board, especially since in their part of the world environmental issues are affecting so many people.
…and the Prime Minister feels now that he is a champion of the disarmament movement. (Where does that put Don Brash’s position of “Gone by lunchtime” now.) Someone somewhere is going to find a picture of a young PM standing with an anti-tour group. The transformation would thus be complete.
Whilst it is to be lauded that so many Johnny-come-latelies are signing up to the nuclear issue, the language of the speeches I have read suggests that they have arrived there out of fear, and not actually questioned the morality of the holding or developing such weaponry.
Has he told his own party. Most Nationals I have spoken to are openly sceptical of the Copenhagen conference. I guess that the difference between being in governement and opposition.
I would suggest that in sending our SAS back to Afghanistan he has scuppered any chances of a seat on the Security Council. Not that I see that as a particularly desirable goal for Kiwis, although I acknowledge its attraction for the Foreign Affairs crowd.
I wonder if JK’s strong support of the ICC will continue if the odd Israeli is hauled up before it on war crimes charges.
And apropos of nothing, why on earth did JK allow himself to be humiliated by Letterman?
[...] Fran goes on to say she has seen Key do something substantive on foreign policy, but to be honest there is scant evidence of that in his statements, despite a nicely crafted, but light on detail speech to the GA that has been phisked by my colleague Phil Twyford, here. [...]