NZ risks 'strategic nincompoop' tag with current Pacific policy, says Chatham House analyst

Tue, 27 Feb 2018

By Pattrick Smellie Feb. 27 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand risks being seen as a "strategic nincompoop, at best" if it persists with attempts to bind Pacific Island countries into the New Zealand and Australian economies using mechanisms such as the PACER Plus free trade agreement, an analyst with global think-tank Chatham House told a high-powered foreign policy conference in Wellington. While such an approach may be intended to curb the potential influence of new actors in Oceania, such as China, it risked having the opposite effect, said...

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