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The New Zealand effort to engage Asia is substantial. But in focusing on where we can work for the future to best effect, we need to take stock of those efforts and ensure that we utilise the tools available to us to support the widest engagement.
Personal contact is of prime importance when dealing with the region. Asian societies place a premium on relationships. The trust that comes through personal knowledge and understanding is often central to the success of relationships, whether in politics, business or social interaction. Sometimes it is the effort itself to build that relationship which is as important as the outcomes. This is true at all levels.
Recent decades have seen a fl ourishing of leadership diplomacy in our region through the expansion of ASEAN summitry, the APEC Leaders’ meetings and now the East Asia Summit. The Government has played a full part in these settings and beyond them in bilateral engagement at leader level. It is a key feature of today’s diplomacy.
Between 2000 and 2006 the Prime Minister made more than 20 visits to Asia. Such visits give New Zealand greater profile and access (such as opening doors for business people in the delegation), and reinforce the importance of the bilateral relationship to our hosts. Head of State visits, though of a more formal nature, are also a mark of good relations and they support our high-level effort. Governors-General made eight state visits to Asia in the period 2000 to 2006. In the same period New Zealand has hosted 11 Head of Government and Head of State visits from the region.
The record of ministerial engagement with Asia has been patchy, perhaps even thin compared with our other key relationships. There is certainly a lot less ministerial travel from Asia to New Zealand than in the opposite direction. It needs stepping up both ways: in terms of frequency, so that productive relationships can develop; and in breadth, beyond the foreign affairs and trade portfolios, as wider interests connect in Asia’s moves towards integration. Visits to New Zealand from the region would allow key decision-makers to understand us better.
Parliamentary exchanges contribute to New Zealand’s regional diplomacy. Our legislators are members of Commonwealth and Asia Pacific forums. Parliamentary friendship groups, including with several Asian counterparts, add informally to these connections. There is scope to build further links in the region, especially with those countries whose systems differ markedly from ours.
Since 1994 we have worked to build relationships with emerging leaders from Japan
and since 2001 with Korea, through programmes for Prime Minister’s Fellows. More
recently, similar programmes have got underway with China and ASEAN, under the
Seriously Asia programme. These are valuable opportunities to expose future
decision-makers in the region to New Zealand and its people.top of page
At a working level the Government has sustained a substantial official engagement with Asia through a diplomatic network of 14 diplomatic and consular posts (including the recently established post in Guangzhou), underpinning an intensified dialogue; support for exporters and investment links; military co-operation with Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, and an expanding network of defence contacts in the wider region; and increasingly complex technical and other links involving police, customs, education, immigration, economic, science and other specialists. In parallel the very diverse networks built up in APEC, ARF and other processes point to a role for senior officials from across the breadth of government in offi cial engagement with Asian counterparts.
Intensified dialogue has meant trying to do better in highlighting to Asian partners what we are trying to achieve, as well as in making them more aware of the substantial range of activities which do take place. As well, we have been listening harder to our friends and neighbours so that we are better tuned in to what is happening in the region. This is traditional diplomacy and there is scope to do more of it.
New Zealand’s brand in Asia, our profile as an innovative, creative people and economy, needs more work. For the Asian public at large, our image remains “clean and green” – with lots of sheep and golf courses. For some sectors that is a relevant image, but for others such as trade, investment and education, we need to communicate the message that we can, and do, offer a lot more. From an environment perspective, we might broaden this brand to support our innovative approach to producing in a sustainable way, with energy used effi ciently and waste reduced. The elements are there in the “New Zealand New Thinking” brand, but they have yet to achieve the coverage or standard set by the 100% Pure NZ campaign to promote tourism.
Building business capability and enthusiasm for export is a major challenge. NZTE
sees a good number of companies on the verge of looking to export to Asia. We
need to strengthen relationships between New Zealand business and industry groups
and counterpart groups and corporations in Asia.
While Asia’s successes give us plenty to celebrate, poverty elimination remains a serious problem in some areas of Southeast Asia, underlining the importance of New Zealand’s Official Development Assistance relationships. With new delivery and quality assurance mechanisms in place, NZAID has been strengthening key partnerships in Asia. There is scope to help accelerate human development and community-building in Asia through these reinvigorated programmes (such as the “sustainable livelihoods” programme). Effective, high-quality ODA can contribute to healthy relationships and even benefi ts to New Zealand’s brand.
Efforts towards closer security engagement have been built on the FPDA, the ASEAN Regional Forum, bilateral military ties and defence diplomacy. This has extended in recent years to new defence relationships. Bilateral police relationships with the region are complemented by contributions to regional counter-terrorism (such as through regional counter-terrorist centres in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur) and closer co-operation in combating trans-national crime. New Zealand takes full part in regional security dialogues, and has become a sponsor of interfaith dialogue.
The process of developing Asian language learning in New Zealand, whether short term or in schools and universities, has been diffi cult. While the new school curriculum increases the emphasis on learning languages, it will be for schools to determine which languages they teach. Schools, students and parents need to be aware of and consider our future with Asia as they make decisions around which languages to offer and study. Finding enough teachers with Asian language skills will be a challenge.
Broader Asia skills are in short supply amongst non-Asian New Zealanders, including
in business. But New Zealand has a lot of Asia knowledge already, among Asian
New Zealanders and recent migrants and visitors. Making good use of existing Asia
networks in New Zealand, including their links to countries of origin, is important
not only for social cohesion but also to utilise expertise and skills otherwise hard
to come by.top of page
We need more information on market intelligence and on the trends and changes occurring in the region. That is necessary for good policy development as well as for better inter-governmental relationships. It is essential too for business and others who play a part in our future with Asia. The mainstream media appears unwilling to invest in Asia-based New Zealand journalists. Yet we need New Zealand-relevant information about Asia. There may be a role for government, through its diverse representation at posts, in sharing more of the good-quality information it gathers.
...Track II engagement, via think-tanks and the like, is a set of New Zealand connections in the region which operates outside of government and brings value through its independent thinking and ideas...
Track II engagement, via think-tanks and the like, is a set of New Zealand connections in the region which operates outside of government and brings value through its independent thinking and ideas. Often it works in parallel with offi cial efforts and contributes to the framing of policy settings by governments in the region (including our own). Track II participation by New Zealand – while well regarded by peers – tends to be limited and fragmentary. Thought needs to go into lifting our Track II capability. There is potential for the Asia New Zealand Foundation to play a greater role in this endeavour.
Cultural diplomacy supported by government (co-ordinated by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage) has taken on a new form. The cultural diplomacy international programme, which focuses on North Asia until 2008/09, highlights what is contemporary, innovative, sophisticated and creative. Cultural diplomacy works in tandem with cultural markets which increasingly include filmmakers, designers and animators as well as New Zealand artists and performers. It remains an effective way of deploying particular assets – such as our creativity in screen production and culture more generally – in a region which values excellence.
The growing range of interests we have in Asia is challenging government agencies to think about how they might better support them onshore and offshore. It is not simply a matter of more staffi ng, but of building up capability and experience in dealing with Asia over the long term. There is an enhanced role for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in co-ordinating a whole-of-government approach to ensure that the Government’s complex dealings with the region are managed for coherence.
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