Fostering closer ASEAN-New Zealand strategic partnership

Senior leaders of ASEAN countries, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi attended the summit held virtually on the sidelines of the ongoing 37th ASEAN Summit and related meetings.

During his opening speech, PM Phuc congratulated New Zealand PM Ardern on her recent re-election victory. He expressed his great appreciation for the significance of 45 years of partnership between ASEAN and New Zealand, and five years of their strategic partnership.

PM Phuc expressed his hope that the two sides will uphold existing co-operation mechanisms and agree upon important directions in order to promote the ASEAN-New Zealand Strategic Partnership over the course of the coming decades.

PM Ardern highly values ASEAN’s efforts in responding to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and voiced her support for ASEAN's central role in developing the region, along with its community building efforts.

New Zealand will work closely alongside ASEAN in order to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to research and develop vaccines, whilst supporting the bloc to promote sustainable recovery efforts and maintain supply chain connectivity, PM Arden said.

On this occasion, the NZ Prime Minister announced a US$1 million contribution to the ASEAN COVID-19 Response Fund, a US$12 million grant to support regional epidemic response efforts, a US$10 million grant for smart agriculture development and climate change adaptation, along with US$5 million for operations of the Mekong Commission.

Moving towards economic recovery, she stressed that New Zealand supports ASEAN’s inclusive growth initiative and its comprehensive recovery framework. In addition, she outlined that New Zealand promotes open, transparent, and rule-based multilateral trade. For this purpose, New Zealand is looking forward to signing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), considering it to be an important milestone for this year.

The leaders noted progress made in implementing the Action Plan in order to realise the Joint Declaration of the ASEAN - New Zealand Strategic Partnership for the 2016 to 2020 period, as well as the People Strategy and the Prosperity Strategy between the two sides. They also affirmed their close co-ordination to fully implement the Action Plan during the 2021 to 2025 period.

At present, ASEAN represents New Zealand’s fourth largest trading partner. After 45 years of mutual ties, two-way trade has increased by more than 142 times, reaching US$12.5 billion in 2019. Indeed, over 80,000 ASEAN citizens are living, working, and studying in New Zealand.

Both sides expressed their deep concerns about the negative impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the lives of people and their respective economies. ASEAN values New Zealand’s role in adopting a project of global partnerships to promote access to medical devices for prevention and treatment of COVID-19, as well as the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). The bloc is also highly appreciative of New Zealand’s commitment to supporting the region’s vaccine research and development efforts in order to allow a vaccine to be widely accessible to the public.

The two sides also agreed to gradually reopen their respective markets, facilitate trade, overcome supply chain failures, and increase economic-trade value. On this basis, both parties said that it can be considered necessary to work towards upgrading the ASEAN - Australia - New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, which complements the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Upon exchanging views on international and regional issues of mutual concern, both leaders affirmed that countries must unite to maintain a peaceful and stable environment both regionally and globally.

They also expressed concern regarding potential threats to peace, security, and stability in the South China Sea, calling on all relevant parties to come together in order to settle disputes through peaceful means in accordance with international law, including the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS 1982) which can be considered as a legal basis for all activities at sea.

ASEAN leaders welcomed New Zealand’s active contributions to maintaining peace, stability, security, safety, and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, adding hope that New Zealand will support efforts to uphold international law. This is in addition to formulating and sharing standards of conduct, seriously implementing the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC) and developing an effective, efficient, and appropriate Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) in compliance with international law and UNCLOS 1982.

At the conclusion of the summit, the two sides adopted a Joint Statement on the vision of ASEAN - New Zealand leaders on the 45th anniversary of their partnership.