The Foreign Minister and a delegation between relatives of parliamentarians are in Hawaii in the second stage of his tour of the Pacific.
Peters told a meeting at the East-West Center that there was a recently unhappy debate on how international trade works.
He said the military language was being used, including “trade war” and the “need to fight”, which he sometimes said seem “hysterical” and “myopic”.
From Tonga on Friday, Peters criticized the first -minister Christopher Luxon for talking to world leaders about the US tariff situation without consulting it in advance.
Peters spoke about New Zealand’s commitment to the Pacific during a speech in Honolulu, Hawaii.
“A central and lasting part of New Zealand’s approach is our determination to work with our Pacific sisters, sisters and cousins to forge a safer, more prosperous and more resilient future, which increases opportunities and possibilities for our peoples,” he said.
Peters said the meeting in Honolulu took place in “an important, uncertain and anxious time in world affairs.”
“Every day, we woke up to the headlines about the events that are happening on the world scenario. It is a common human trend to think that the events or devastation of the moment are unprecedented. That the challenges we face are exclusively urgent or complex. In fact, the most used word in politics is” crisis. “
“This, along with the hyperactive age of the social media in which we live, can generate the desire to react quickly and very well established. To establish absolute principles to defend themselves.
He said that morning that the delegation was held at USS Missouri, “where the part of the Pacific of World War II came to an end” after “our peoples fought and died, together in defense of a free, open and democratic region.”
In the following decades, Peters said that “meticulously [built] An international order based on dialogue, commitment, diplomacy and confidence “, preferring” jaw, jaw to war, war. “
“In recent weeks, the tendency to expose a debate on how international trade works on a black and white and polarizing issue has been unhappy and mistaken. The use of the military language and a ‘trade war’, the need to ‘fight’, of the imperative of forming alliances in order to oppose the actions of a country to come across Hysterical.
He said it was one of the interests of New Zealand, like a small country, being “cautious, being modest, being pragmatic and practical. Expecting the dust to like before making choices, we can later regret it.”
Last week, Luxon said the new US tariff regime and daily change was causing uncertainty and reaching people’s back pockets.
“What is really concerned with is the change of agreed rules and the risks of actually returning to a global trade war,” Luxon said.
“A trade war is frankly in anyone’s interest. This will diminish global growth, harm jobs and reduce the amount of money we have in our wallets.”
‘Confrontation and rude’
Peters acknowledged that the US and New Zealand “have not always seen an eye on their eyes” and that “US presidents have not always been popular at home.”
“My view of the strategic partnership between New Zealand and the United States is as follows: each of us has the right, in fact, the imperative, to follow our own foreign policies, driven by our own sense of national interest. But close friends need not be and should not be, confrontational and rude, as New Zealândia was sometimes for the United States in the last 1980.
“And we should never forget what unites us and binds us, connects stronger and longer lasting than the controversies and headlines of the moment. We should give each other the benefit of doubt and a fair audience, try to understand each other’s perspectives and find the cause and the common goal.
“New Zealand hopes to work with the new US administration to support a peaceful, prosperous and broader and broader region in the Indo-Pacific region. We look forward to staying in partnership in the interdependent areas of safety, economy and development.”
