Politics blog: July 15-19

Helen Clark and Don Brash are certainly not the most likely of co-signatories to an official statement. So what exactly did the Prime Minister say that was powerful enough to draw these former leaders of opposing parties together?

Here are a few lines from the Financial Times article by Demetri Sevastopulo Clark and Brash referred to:

"(New Zealand) wanted to increase vigilance across the business community about the threat (of Chinese interference) — mirroring a strategy adopted by the US, UK, Canada and Australia, (Luxon said)."

"(Luxon) said New Zealand would continue to develop trade with China as it strove to double its overall exports over 10 years. But he said he would not pull his punches when it came to criticising China if necessary, over fears of retaliatory economic coercion."

"Luxon said he wanted to work out where New Zealand could 'add value' to its security relationships but that it was critical to be 'highly interoperable with Australia' and a 'force multiplier for Australia and the US and other partners'."

"(Luxon) said New Zealand was also “very open” to participating in the second pillar of Aukus."