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Although we have tried to use plain English content on the site, you may come across specialist terms and acronyms. Find out what they mean in our glossary of terms.
If you come across a term that isn't included in the Glossary please send us an email.
The Government's external policy goal is to have:
New Zealand
seek to influence the international environment
to promote our interests and
values and to contribute to a stable, peaceful and
prosperous world.
As New Zealand’s diplomatic and consular service, the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) is to comprehend our operating environment, be alert to risks and opportunities and be able to respond and manage them quickly so that we stay on course to achieve the major outcome we seek, that:
New Zealand's
voice is heard abroad and our security and prosperity
interests are advanced and protected.
Protecting and advancing New Zealand’s interests in a complex and changing external environment, requires strategic, sustained, prioritised, and whole-of-government foreign policy engagement. We work with foreign governments and organisations offshore, with those government agencies at home that share interests in New Zealand’s international connections, and with stakeholder groups in the wider community to enlist their support and commitment in broadening and deepening relations with other countries beyond the government-to-government relationship.
We protect and advance our interests by developing and sustaining relationships with foreign governments and organisations so that New Zealand can accrue and exert influence on them to accommodate our interests in the decisions they take. We do this through presence, persuasion and negotiation. Our resources include offshore representation and a global network of communications to cultivate influence over time and to prepare the ground for specific initiatives and interventions.
New Zealand’s bedrock relationships are with Australia, the US, the EU, Japan, the Pacific Island countries and China. Beyond this, we are broadening the base of our relationships by strengthening linkages with existing partners in, for example, Southeast/South Asia and the Russian Federation, and building links with newer partners, for example in the Middle East and Latin America.
Effective multilateral diplomacy, in both trade and political spheres, provides an important complement and underpinning to our bilateral and regional relationships as well as a context in which to project and protect our interests and values. Protecting and enhancing our trade access through WTO, regional and bilateral diplomacy remains a core priority.
A number of other government agencies make important contributions to the outcomes we seek. MFAT, in turn, contributes to the outcomes sought by other government agencies, especially in the context of New Zealand’s frameworks for sustainable development and growth and innovation. Our core collaborative relationships on - and offshore are detailed in the section on inter-agency cooperation.
MFAT is responsive to the desire of New Zealanders to know more about our external environment and to contribute views on the direction of New Zealand’s foreign policy. Our domestic stakeholders include business organisations and the private sector, non-government organisations (NGOs), Maori and interest groups. Our engagement with the wider community helps us promote New Zealand’s identity in the world as people who support and defend freedom and fairness and who value our diverse cultural heritage. It provides us with additional capacity to engage in international debates, including on trade, terrorism, disarmament, human rights, sustainable development and the environment. The private sector has a key role also in our work to negotiate Closer Economic Partnerships/Free Trade Agreements with other countries.
The New Zealand Agency for International Development (NZAID)/Nga Hoe Tuputupu-mai-tawhiti was established as a semi-autonomous body within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 1 July 2002 and charged with managing the Government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation with a central focus on poverty elimination and a core but not exclusive focus on the Pacific.
The Ministry conducts an annual forward-looking scan of the world in which New Zealand pursues its external policies. We look for current trends and key drivers for change. By doing so we identify opportunities and risks that may impact on our foreign and trade policy outcomes in the period covered by our Statement of Intent and we adjust our plans and approach accordingly.
