MOSCOW: Foreign Minister Winston Peters is heading to Apec in Vietnam this week, but says pursuing a trade deal with the Russian bloc will not be a focus.
The Labour-New Zealand First coalition agreement specifies working towards a free trade deal with the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan Customs Union. Russia and New Zealand were close to a free trade deal, but pulled back after Russia seized Crimea from the Ukraine in 2014.
Last week European Union ambassador Bernard Savage said that pursuing trade talks with Russia would be viewed in a “very negative” light, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to say that a free trade deal with the EU was a higher priority than a deal with the Customs Union.
Asked about restarting talks with Russia, whose president Vladimir Putin will also be at Apec, Peters said this trip would focus on Apec and then the East Asia Summit in the Philippines, not on the trade deal with the Customs Union.
