Could New Zealand Serve As An ‘Honest Broker’ To Repair Ties Between China And The West?

South China Morning Post

02 February 2021

Amid the fallout from protracted trade wars and political conflicts between China, the United States and its allies, there stands a bright outlier. Last week, the small nation of New Zealand managed to cut a fresh trade deal with China, expanding the breadth of its more than decade-old free-trade agreement and reducing tariffs on nearly all of its exports to China to zero. Some have even argued that New Zealand could use its friendly relations with Beijing to serve as a mediator to help ease tensions between China and the other four other members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing coalition – the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. Others warn that such an effort would be fraught with difficulty, given the entrenched positions of all parties, and could easily backfire on Wellington. As the only Five Eyes member largely free of conflict with China, New Zealand appears to be in a favourable position to act as an “honest broker”, said Dr. Tan See Seng, a Professor of International Relations at RSIS.

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Last updated on 06/05/2021