Larry Williams Drive

Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and the Chinese ambassador have offered differing accounts of a meeting and discussion of a Joint Statement with the United States that drew the wrath of Beijing.Mahuta and Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong met on Thursday. It was the first meeting for the pair since Xiaolong started the role in December.The meeting came amid a week of heightened geopolitical tension, with China Foreign Minister Wang Yi continuing an eight-stop tour of the Pacific originally intended to drum up support for a wide-ranging regional agreement.It also included Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's White House visit, after which she and US President Joe Biden issued a Joint Statement that noted New Zealand and the United States' close ties on matters of security and singled out China's recent inroads in the Pacific as concerning."We note with concern the security agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Solomon Islands," the declaration read."In particular, the United States and New Zealand