New Zealand says new NATO partnership to be concluded in 'coming months'

FILE PHOTO: New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters attends a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with Indo-Pacific partners at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium April 4, 2024. REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool/File Photo

By Lucy Craymer

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -New Zealand is committed to working more closely with NATO partners to support collective security and expects to conclude talks on its partnership agreement with the alliance in the “coming months,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Friday.

“New Zealand is committed to working together with NATO partners to contribute to collective security, such as through our support for Ukraine’s self-defence,” Peters said after attending the NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs meeting in Brussels on April 3-4.

Peters said the outcome of the war in Ukraine would have major impacts on global security, “and that is why New Zealand must be prepared to do its part.”

New Zealand has been negotiating a new type of partnership with NATO as the alliance shifts all its partnership arrangements to a new model called an Individually Tailored Partnership Programme.

“We expect to conclude this partnership in the coming months, agreeing tangible areas of cooperation,” Peters said.

Peters will travel to the United States and is expected to meet next week U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to discuss major global and regional security challenges, his office said.

He will address the UN General Assembly on New Zealand’s “deep concerns about the situation in Gaza.” Peters will return to New Zealand on April 14.

(Reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington Editing by Sandra Maler and Matthew Lewis)