Last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a summit with his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern.
It was the first in-person meeting between the two countries’ heads of government since 2017 and served as another important milestone in the relationship that they have termed a “Strategic Cooperative Partnership.”
The two leaders marked the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and New Zealand — a relationship that has been meaningful, but notably different from Tokyo’s ties with other regional players in terms of the issues that the respective governments have prioritized for the better part of the last two decades.