WELLINGTON: Looking back on her last five years as New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern said China’s behavior in the region has undoubtedly become more aggressive. He also cautioned that building relationships with smaller Pacific countries should not become a game of trying to dominate the other. Ardern said in a joint interview with The Associated Press and The Australian Associated Press on Thursday that China has changed in recent years under the leadership of President Xi Jinping.
“I think if I look at the region from a little distance, one of the changes we’ve seen in our region is we see a more aggressive China,” he said. Ardern said, “There would be many reasons for this. Its integration into the regional economy, the growth of China, the growth of its middle class… there’s a whole range of reasons.” He said, “You have seen a more assertive approach on many different issues and relationships. So it has undoubtedly changed during my tenure.
China made some bold geopolitical moves in the Pacific this year. It signed a security agreement with the Solomon Islands and then tried unsuccessfully to get 10 Pacific countries to sign a comprehensive agreement covering everything from security to fisheries. The moves have alarmed some Pacific countries and Western democracies, including the US, but Ardern dismissed criticism that New Zealand had not made a substantial presence this year.
Ardern said, “Our relationship in the Pacific is family because we are like a family, we are part of the Pacific. She said that these relationships are built at the community level. Ardern said that we have to be really careful about our relationships and that building relationships with other Pacific countries should not become an attempt to dominate the other. ,
