{"id":1623779,"date":"2024-04-22T11:51:18","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=100080"},"modified":"2024-04-22T11:51:18","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T11:51:18","slug":"nzs-foreign-minister-winston-peters-defers-recognition-of-palestine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/04\/22\/nzs-foreign-minister-winston-peters-defers-recognition-of-palestine\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ\u2019s Foreign Minister Winston Peters \u2018defers\u2019 recognition of Palestine"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Russell Palmer<\/a>, RNZ News<\/a> digital political journalist<\/em><\/p>\n New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters is putting off recognition of Palestine as a state, despite opposition Labour’s formal request that he make the move.<\/p>\n Peters said diplomatic recognition of Palestine was a matter of “when not if”, but doing so now could impede progress towards a two-state solution — and the focus should be on aid for civilians.<\/p>\n Labour’s foreign affairs spokesperson David Parker had written to Peters, calling for New Zealand to take “meaningful action” by recognising Palestine as a state.<\/p>\n He noted this did not mean a recognition of Hamas, “which is one political party in the Palestinian territories”.<\/p>\n “There can be no lasting peace without Palestinian statehood,” Parker wrote, pointing to 139 of the 193 member states of the United Nations having already recognised it.<\/p>\n “Recognition signals this. It doesn’t matter that the state is yet to be fully established, with agreed borders. Many states and much of the Western world recognised Israel well before it was established as a state. Similarly with Kosovo.”<\/p>\n\n