Prime Minister Anwar, Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, Ministers, and Honourable senior representatives of ASEAN Member States and the ASEAN Secretariat: Good afternoon.
I am delighted to join you for the ASEAN-New Zealand Commemorative Summit which, due to COVID, is our first in-person Leader-level meeting in 10 years.
Today we come together to reflect on the legacy of 50 years of partnership and set the future direction of our relationship.
2025 is a big year of anniversaries for New Zealand and ASEAN. Aside from our Golden Anniversary we also recognise the 20th anniversary of New Zealand’s accession to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. A milestone, which at that time, marked 30 years of ASEAN-New Zealand relations.
This Summit is the first time we meet with Timor-Leste as a full member of ASEAN. New Zealand has long supported Timor-Leste’s aspirations and we congratulate Timor-Leste on its formal welcome into the ASEAN family.
New Zealand understands that our prosperity, security and future growth is closely intertwined with that of ASEAN Member States. We share a region, and we all share a role in shaping its future.
Over 50 years, from modest beginnings, we have charted a shared story of growth and development. We now have two comprehensive regional Free Trade Agreements, in RCEP and AANZFTA, two-way trade of $29.3 billion every year, and we are signing a new Regional Air Services Agreement today. We trade in three days now what we did in all of 1975.
The ASEAN-New Zealand relationship touches all domains. From education to agriculture, renewable energy to the digital economy, together our cooperation makes each other more prosperous and more secure in a challenging world.
We base our relations on peace, partnership and respect. New Zealand values ASEAN’s convening power – bringing together diverse states’ voices on issues that impact us all. Dialogue is essential for enhancing understanding and bridging differences.
Under our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership we will meet formally, as leaders, more often – every two years. Our biennial Leaders Summits will enable the exchange of ideas that can drive change and development for us all.
Today, in a world troubled by volatility and in a region where old certainties are no longer guaranteed, ASEAN and New Zealand still hold strong in our belief in the same things: the importance of words rather than weapons; a rules-based order where size does not determine rights; a world where trade stays open and an Indo-Pacific region in which ASEAN helps anchor a stable and prosperous regional architecture based in international law.
ASEAN and New Zealand, together, have agency to shape our regional and global order. We will continue to work together closely to do so, and I am excited about the future direction of our relationship. Thank you, Prime Minister Anwar.