foreign affairs Archive

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  The Global Affairs Portfolio: Setting the Foreign Policy Agenda - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Following the Greens’ new caucus retreat this week, the list of MP portfolios was announced.  I have relinquished the Musterer’s role and the Justice and Energy portfolios and taken on, inter alia, the new Global Affairs portfolio. This is a new development that builds upon, and refines, the previous foreign affairs portfolio.  It focuses on [...] read more
  December 15, 2011 9:08 am - 19 Comments
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  There ain’t no party like an ICC State Party: Vanuatu joins the Court - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  “A treaty is not a law imposed by a superior authority on its subordinates [but] only a contract whose signatories cannot decree penalties against themselves since there would be no one to implement them. The only reasonable guarantee should lie in the creation of international jurisdiction with the necessary power to compel obedience”. Prophetic words [...] read more
  December 9, 2011 10:31 am - No Comments
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  Chogm fails to challenge Sri Lanka on human rights - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Human rights was the loser at this year’s Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ conference (GHOGM). Endorsing Sri Lanka to host the next (2013) conference was a slap in the face for those calling for an independent international investigation into the 2009 massacre in northern Sri Lanka and an end to the ongoing persecution of the Tamils. To [...] read more
  October 31, 2011 12:17 pm - 5 Comments
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  ‘Debating’ Foreign Policy: National and Green - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  Yesterday, the NZ Institute of International Affairs held an important one-day seminar on ‘The Major Economic and Foreign Policy Issues facing New Zealand, 2012-17’. The programme is here. Some excellent presentations were made, especially by Rick Boven (NZ Institute) and Duncan Currie (oceans consultant). There were three political representatives. The Minister spoke at 8.45 am. [...] read more
  October 23, 2011 10:42 am - 3 Comments
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  Mapp’s reassurances on torture fall short - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  It’s not good enough for Defence Minister Wayne Mapp to say he has “no information” that any of the 58 people arrested on the SAS’s joint operations with the Afghan Crisis Response Unit have been subsequently tortured. He admitted that 15 of them had been sent to facilities run by the Afghan intelligence service, the [...] read more
  October 14, 2011 2:15 pm - 5 Comments
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  Controversial ACTA to be signed this weekend - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  This weekend, the Key Government is yet again putting our country’s sovereignty on the line by signing up to the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in Japan. Until recently, this international agreement had been negotiated entirely in secret despite huge concerns about sovereignty and copyright law. However, active campaigning and a great deal of leaked [...] read more
  September 28, 2011 4:43 pm - 2 Comments
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  Palmer Panel soft on Israel’s flotilla raid - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  It was seen as a feather in New Zealand’s cap when former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer was appointed to head the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry into the Israeli attack on a flotilla bringing aid to Gaza in May 2010. Unfortunately, the resultant report, released this month, is far from adequate. It supports the [...] read more
  September 12, 2011 2:18 pm - 6 Comments
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  Book reinforces Green criticism of NZ deployments to Gulf and Basra - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Nicky Hager’s Other People’s Wars, shows that New Zealand was more involved in the Iraq war than most people think. The book’s reinforces the points I was making at the time, that our Orion and frigate in the Gulf, and our army engineers in Basra, were actually assisting the US/UK war effort. Our frigate Te [...] read more
  September 4, 2011 5:21 pm - 12 Comments
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  MPs stunned after seeing “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  With some trepidation I helped organise a showing of “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” in the Beehive Theatrette last Tuesday.  It is a shocking film, mainly using cell-phone footage to show what it was like for the 300,000 civilians repeatedly bombed and shelled by the Sri Lankan military in the final weeks of the civil war. [...] read more
  August 19, 2011 8:18 am - 23 Comments
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  British riots: addressing the “why” - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  David Cameron’s answer to the British riots seems to be better policing. No doubt there could be improvements, but they shouldn’t be measures that hurt ordinary citizens, like the PM’s suggestion that there could be state controls on social networking. If we really want to prevent such destructive rioting we have to address the “why” [...] read more
  August 12, 2011 4:31 pm - 30 Comments
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  The Libyan mess - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  In March the Greens came out in opposition to the NATO air operations over Libya. We said they would probably prolong Gaddafi’s stay in power by allowing the dictator to present himself as a nationalist, fighting foreign intervention. Four months later we’ve been proved right.   The Western intervention was contrary to the UN Charter and based [...] read more
  July 19, 2011 9:35 am - 12 Comments
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  Key lets down the Egyptian people - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Most New Zealanders have been inspired by the huge mobilisation of Egyptians against the Mubarak dictatorship. “Mubarak must go now” has been the cry from the streets, but not from the White House – or the Beehive. When street protests began Hillary Clinton asked Mubarak to bring in ‘reforms’. As the protests grew American officials [...] read more
  February 3, 2011 10:32 am - 44 Comments
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  Cyberwarfare a dangerous path - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  I see that “cybersecurity” one of the agenda items in this week’s tete-a-tete between Foreign Minister Murray McCully, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp and their UK counterparts William Hague and Liam Fox. The first question McCully and Mapp should ask the British ministers is “Are you going to challenge the United States on its resort to [...] read more
  January 19, 2011 3:00 pm - 12 Comments
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  Defend Wikileaks against US government attacks - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Prominent Australians, including Green Senator Bob Brown, have signed an Open Letter to Julia Gillard asking her to provide assistance to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the face of the attacks he is facing, including threats of assassination. The letter says “such calls cannot be dismissed as bluster. Over the last decade, we have seen [...] read more
  December 9, 2010 5:31 pm - 45 Comments
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  Iraqi Christians rally against violence - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
   One of the legacies of the US-led invasion of Iraq has been sectarian violence it unleashed, not only between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, but also against the Christian minority.  Yesterday I spoke to a gathering of 100 Iraqi Christians who met on the lawn in front of Parliament to mourn those who have been killed. [...] read more
  November 24, 2010 9:30 am - 11 Comments
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  Select Committee calls for UN Commission on Burma - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Pressure has been building since March for the UN to set up a Commission of Inquiry into the Burmese regime’s human rights abuses. read more
  September 21, 2010 1:47 pm - 1 Comment
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  “Whatever You Do, Keep Your Head Down”: The Non-Key to Non-Aggression - by Kennedy Graham

  
  
  
  The NZ Government under John Key has displayed its pusillanimity on the question of international law and security – once more. In answer to a question in the House yesterday, the Foreign Minister (actually the Attorney-General in his absence, which guaranteed an articulate exchange) stated that New Zealand will not ratify, over the next seven [...] read more
  June 24, 2010 5:36 pm - 5 Comments
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  Popping the balloon of secrecy around Waihopai - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
  Last weekend’s protest at Waihopai was the usual colourful affair. It began with a march through Blenheim, and speeches from Murray Horton, John Minto and myself. We then adjourned to the spy base itself, up the beautiful Waihopai Valley. More speeches and chants followed by the ceremonial popping of 13 white ballons, each displaying a [...] read more
  January 26, 2010 2:29 pm - 54 Comments
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  Fonterra and MFAT’s role as ambassadors - by frog

  
  
  
  As I’ve said before I think the Sanlu milk scandal is health story rather than a business story or a ‘Brand New Zealand- 100% Pure’ story.  Nonetheless much of the coverage here has been about what dead and ill babies in China means for Fonterra as a company. Has it hurt them/us or not? There’s [...] read more
  September 23, 2008 8:49 am - 4 Comments
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  Make peace not war - by frog

  
  
  
  And here’s more policy announcements.  Keith Locke and Kennedy Graham launched a 22 page foreign affairs policy tonight at the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Institute for International Affairs that: Introduces into our trading framework with other countries values like human rights, labour and environmental standards, ecologically-sustainable practices, local values and cultures, the right [...] read more
  September 17, 2008 8:55 pm - 102 Comments