NZ / AEROTOA

Report explores 'Māori foreign policy' and China relations

Christine Rovoi

Jun 30 2023


Using te ao Māori principles in our foreign policy provides a fundamental difference in how Kiwis see the world, a new academic paper has found.

The report, released on Wednesday, comes amid concerns about China’s growing influence and power in the Indo-Pacific region.

Titled “New Zealand's Maori foreign policy and China: a case of instrumental relationality?”, the study explored the implications of using te ao Māori principles in the face of increasingly great power tensions.

Co-author Dr Nicholas Ross Smith, at the University of Canterbury, said with the competition between China and the United States, there was an “emerging fear” that New Zealand would be forced to choose a side.


READ MORE:
* As Chris Hipkins prepares to meet President Xi, Nanaia Mahuta denies being 'harangued' by Chinese counterpart

* Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta raised China's position on Ukraine war with diplomats in Beijing

* The Treaty of Waitangi, and a Māori worldview are taking a greater role in shaping how we interact with the world

* Nanaia Mahuta lays out vision for NZ foreign policy: China for trade, US for defence, and Pacific at the centre

The paper is one of the first contributions to global international relations literature based on an ao Māori perspective, Smith said.

The study was also conducted by Victoria University Masters student Bonnie Holster (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngāti Rangiwewehi).

The new study examined Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s use of a kaupapa Māori foreign policy based on four tikanga.

The findings were published in the International Affairs journal by Oxford University Press.

Smith, a senior research fellow at UC, said the study examined Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta’s use of a kaupapa Māori foreign policy, based on four tikanga Māori: manaakitanga (hospitality), whanaungatanga (connectedness), mahi tahi and kotahitanga (unity through collaboration) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship and the protection of intergenerational wellbeing).

“Using te ao Māori principles in our foreign policy provides a fundamental difference in how we see the world,” Smith said.

“It takes a relational and intergenerational approach that offers a more complex and sophisticated way of looking at these relationships, which is radically very different to how many countries approach geopolitics.”

Assessing the communications of Mahuta and other officials, the study found that through the instrumental use of a kaupapa Māori framework, Aotearoa had been able to develop a mature relationship with China when other countries were pushing back.

In April last year, China sealed a security deal with the Solomon Islands which allowed Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare to call on Beijing at any time for police or defence assistance.

During a visit to New Zealand in October 2022, Solomons foreign minister Jeremiah Manele​ assured Mahuta that the security pact with China would not result in a Chinese military base in the Pacific.

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/AP
Despite signing a security agreement with China in 2022, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, here with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, left, says that the pact will not lead to a Chinese military base in the Pacific. 

Manele also said the Solomon Islands would not “choose sides” in a geopolitical struggle over the Pacific, and would partner with both Beijing and Washington. ​

Smith said New Zealand’s predicament was that, while we had strong and hard security links with the US, China was easily our most important trading partner

“Australia has taken a conventional balancing approach by deepening ties with the US at the expense of its relationship with China,” he said.

“By moving towards a more relational view based on te ao Māori principles, we have arguably been able to choose a more ambitious and independent option of attempting to maintain good relationships with all.

“The challenge with this is it does make us an outlier, particularly in the Five Eyes security alliance, and there is the risk that this approach may isolate and put us in a vulnerable position,” Smith said.

Mahuta this week denied she was being “harangued” by her Chinese counterpart Qin Gang at their meeting in Beijing in March – the first visit to China by a Cabinet minister since 2019.

The discussions included trade, human rights and security challenges such as Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. Mahuta also met business and women leaders while in Beijing.

“China is integral to New Zealand’s economic recovery, but our relationship is far broader – spanning cultural, educational and sporting links,” she said.

UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY
Dr Nicholas Ross Smith says there is increasing competition between the United States and China, with an "emerging fear" that New Zealand will be forced to choose a side.

Mahuta has said the conversation she had with Qin in March was merely “robust”.

Smith said that while the upcoming general election may result in a change of minister at Foreign Affairs, he was confident that aspects of the Māori foreign policy would continue.

“Nanaia Mahuta has undoubtedly been a key driver of this, so a change in personnel could see us revert to a more conventional foreign policy approach.

“However, there is also an evolutionary aspect that reflects New Zealand's growing embrace of te ao Māori perspectives, together with the continued role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in public policymaking, which I believe is here to stay.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Tuesday met Chinese President Xi Xingping at Bejing's Great Hall of the People near Tiananmen Square, where student-led demonstrations from April-June in 1989 – demanding greater political freedom and a more democratic government – left several thousand people dead and thousands more injured.

Hipkins' week-long agenda includes Aotearoa's ongoing economic relationship with issues like trade, international students and tourism.

Hipkins returns to New Zealand on Friday.