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Ardern invites Canadian PM Trudeau to New Zealand

Author
NZ Newswire,
Publish Date
Mon, 13 Nov 2017, 5:42PM
Winston Peters, Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau. Photo/Barry Soper
Winston Peters, Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau. Photo/Barry Soper

Ardern invites Canadian PM Trudeau to New Zealand

Author
NZ Newswire,
Publish Date
Mon, 13 Nov 2017, 5:42PM

Jacinda Ardern has invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to visit New Zealand.

The Prime Minister extended the offer in her first formal meeting with Mr Trudeau in the Philippines where they're attending the East Asia Summit.

Ardern acknowledged she was putting him in an awkward position asking in front of a crowd of media.

"You should feel bound by that now," she joked.

"You would be most welcome and it would be great to continue our conversation, share some of our learnings as well on issues we feel really proud to be promoting and see what other exchanges we can make."

The young leaders have a lot in common both personally and professionally, in terms of the issues New Zealand and Canada are focused on.

Trudeau said the meeting was a chance to "dig in" to the bilateral relationship.

"To (discuss) the things we have shared values on whether it's a progressive trade agenda, whether it's looking at climate change ... we have an awful lot to talk about," he said.

The leaders went straight to their meeting from the official ASEAN opening ceremony where Ms Ardern posed for pictures with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte and for the official leader picture.

The linked arm ASEAN handshake was a tricky task for some including US President Donald Trump who got there in the end and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev who gave up.

Ardern will meet with Duterte to discuss human rights later in the week and also with European Commission President Donald Tusk to discuss the progress of free trade talks with the European Union.

There's strong support in Germany and from a number of other parties for that agreement to proceed quickly, Ardern said on Sunday night ahead of the first round of meetings on Monday (local time).

"Of course it's about making sure our negotiators have the mandate to begin the negotiations, so we will absolutely be raising that and seeking as much priority as I can," she said.

"Certainly I would hope we are (close to a mandate) and I'll be advocating for it."

Trade is also expected to be on the agenda with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a focus on the Regional Economic Comprehensive Partnership which would give New Zealand greater market access into India.

"Also I'm going to continue to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to visit New Zealand ... I think it would be fantastic to have a visit from him particularly for our Indian community in New Zealand," she said.

The summit overall is expected to focus heavily on regional security and preventing extremism in the region.

- NZ Newswire

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