McCully to Kuala Lumpur for Asia-Pacific regional meetings

  • Murray McCully
Foreign Affairs

Foreign Minister Murray McCully travels to Kuala Lumpur this week to attend the ASEAN-NZ Ministerial Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and the 22nd ASEAN Regional Forum.

“This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of New Zealand’s formal partnership with ASEAN,” Mr McCully says. 

“ASEAN is vitally important to New Zealand.  If ASEAN were a single country, it would be the third most populous in the world, the fourth biggest exporter and the seventh largest in terms of GDP.

“The ASEAN grouping is becoming a principal hub for world commerce and plays a key role in maintaining regional peace and stability.

“The East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum play an important role in addressing the political and security challenges facing our region, such as maritime security, counter-terrorism, non-proliferation and disaster response,” Mr McCully says.