Prime Minister John Key has almost completed what he came to Vietnam to do -- he donned a silly shirt, held formal talks with his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and had a quick chat with United States
Prime Minister John Key has almost completed what he came to Vietnam to do -- he donned a silly shirt, held formal talks with his Australian counterpart Julia Gillard and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and had a quick chat with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Of course there were the business meetings in Ho Chi Minh yesterday and a number of talks, formal and not, with other world leaders today, but the big guns are in the bag.
Mr Key was in Vietnam for the East Asia Summit in Hanoi. As is traditional the leaders yesterday wore shirts representing the host country's national dress.
Mr Key was sporting a long-sleeved shiny blue top throughout his meetings last night.
He said he had a warm and wide-ranging discussion with Ms Gillard during their first official meeting since her election.
Although there were no concrete outcomes, a large chunk of the meeting was taken up with discussions about Fiji.
"We remain absolutely committed together to try and do whatever we can to have democracy restored in Fiji.".
Foreign Ministers Murray McCully and Kevin Rudd would meet in a few weeks time and would be looking to come up with new ways of achieving that, Mr Key said.
They spoke about Ms Gillard's election promise of a regional processing centre for asylum seekers. Mr Key reiterated that while New Zealand was keen to discuss the idea they did not want to host, nor pay for, the centre.
"She understood that point of view... I think she is very much of the view that this is a regional issue that partners need to consider."
They did not discuss where the centre could be but raised other issues that needed to be sorted out.
Mr Key has said he did not want asylum seekers at the centre to be seen as queue jumping to move to New Zealand.
He said they also discussed climate change and the economy during the almost hour-long meeting.
"We had some discussion, briefly, about the strength of the two economies, the challenges that we both face, the high Australian dollar and the high New Zealand dollar. So there's an awful lot of synergies there."
At the start of the meeting, Ms Gillard was quick to ask how things were in Christchurch following the quake.
Mr Key said things were improving and belatedly congratulated her on winning the election.
"Oh, congratulations by the way," he said. "Thank you, thank you," Ms Gillard replied.
She was likely visit New Zealand for formal meetings in January or February. Mr Key said there would be "one or two deliverables" out of that next meeting.
After his meeting with Ms Gillard, Mr Key met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and attended a gala dinner for leaders at the EAS, including United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The two shook hands and had a brief chat as Mrs Clinton entered the room.
Mr Key invited Mr Ban to the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland next year and discussed New Zealand's bid for a seat on the UN Security Council with him.
They were also expected to discuss Myanmar's election next week.
The member-state would hold its first election in 20 years but Mr Key said an election where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest failed the test for democracy.
While the holding of elections was a tiny step in the right direction it was not enough to satisfy New Zealand, he said.
Mr Key leaves for New Zealand tonight.
