Peters wimps out of Timor visit
Posted on Tuesday, June 13, 2006 at 4:58 PM | Permalink
Once again Phil Goff is doing the real work of Foreign Minister, visiting New Zealand and Australian troops restoring order to East Timor. Meanwhile Winston Peters is sunning himself in the Cook Islands and will not visit Timor until it is safer.
"I'll go there the moment I think they can do that job without any impediment to the enforcement of peace in that country."
But Goff saw more value in visiting immediately:
"My visit is intended to give me a first-hand impression of the tasks our Defence Force is undertaking and what more needs to be done to restore security and stability in East Timor."
As with the rioting in the Solomons, Peters is too scared to put his feet on the ground but Goff has shown no such trepidation.
The trend for Peters to be absent from major regional crisis, despite his pledge to prioritise the Pacific, was noted by the NZ Herald in their June 8 editorial:
"... in the real foreign affairs portfolio, the Defence Minister, Phil Goff, sets off today for Dili in East Timor. Oddly, he follows in the steps of Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, who went before their Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, because Canberra has a notion that the foreign minister deals with major diplomatic issues."
Update June 17: Audrey Young has an article in the NZ Herald pointing out Goff's primacy in foreign affairs. Hattip: Kiwiblog
Mr Goff's recent trip to East Timor is a sensitive point.
[Clark] had decided that because Mr Goff had been the first minister into the Solomon Islands after the recent crisis, Mr Peters could be first into East Timor.
Mr Goff, however, sought a change in the plan because rather than wait, he was keen to accept an offer of a ride by Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson from Singapore where they had both been at a defence meeting. [...]
But Mr Peters is said to have been seething about it when he learned about it in Vanuatu, where he was leading a 50-strong delegation.
Mr Downer had been first in for Australia, and were Mr Goff still Foreign Minister and Mark Burton still Defence Minister, there is no doubt which minister would have gone first.
"I'll go there the moment I think they can do that job without any impediment to the enforcement of peace in that country."
But Goff saw more value in visiting immediately:
"My visit is intended to give me a first-hand impression of the tasks our Defence Force is undertaking and what more needs to be done to restore security and stability in East Timor."
As with the rioting in the Solomons, Peters is too scared to put his feet on the ground but Goff has shown no such trepidation.
The trend for Peters to be absent from major regional crisis, despite his pledge to prioritise the Pacific, was noted by the NZ Herald in their June 8 editorial:
"... in the real foreign affairs portfolio, the Defence Minister, Phil Goff, sets off today for Dili in East Timor. Oddly, he follows in the steps of Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, who went before their Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, because Canberra has a notion that the foreign minister deals with major diplomatic issues."
Update June 17: Audrey Young has an article in the NZ Herald pointing out Goff's primacy in foreign affairs. Hattip: Kiwiblog
Mr Goff's recent trip to East Timor is a sensitive point.
[Clark] had decided that because Mr Goff had been the first minister into the Solomon Islands after the recent crisis, Mr Peters could be first into East Timor.
Mr Goff, however, sought a change in the plan because rather than wait, he was keen to accept an offer of a ride by Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson from Singapore where they had both been at a defence meeting. [...]
But Mr Peters is said to have been seething about it when he learned about it in Vanuatu, where he was leading a 50-strong delegation.
Mr Downer had been first in for Australia, and were Mr Goff still Foreign Minister and Mark Burton still Defence Minister, there is no doubt which minister would have gone first.
