Latest / Best of Business / Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Prime Minister Luxon's new partnership with Vietnam

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Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Prime Minister Luxon's new partnership with Vietnam · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks ed be
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  Speaker 2: Our Prime minister is considering sending a navy vessel to
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  Speaker 2: the South China Sea as the region's tensions continue to rise.
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  Speaker 2: This slightly related to what's going on with China, but
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  Speaker 2: more to do with Vietnam, where the government where the
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  Speaker 2: Prime Minister is visiting at the moment, strengthening the country's
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  Speaker 2: diplomatic ties. He's stigned a strategic partnership. Jason Walls is
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  Speaker 2: News Talks of Bee's political editor. He's with me tonight.
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  Speaker 3: Hi Jason, good morning, Good morning, good evening, Ryan.
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  Speaker 2: Good to have you one. What exactly has the Prime
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  Speaker 2: Minister signed here.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a bit confusing. It's called the Comprehensive Strategic
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  Speaker 3: Partnership Agreement. Now it sounds a little oddurn esque, like
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  Speaker 3: they've just slapped the word comprehensive in front of it
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  Speaker 3: to make everything hunky dory. But it is actually quite
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  Speaker 3: significant because in Vietnam, the structure here is very controlled
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  Speaker 3: by the government, even the business side of things. You
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  Speaker 3: need a lot of governments off before you do anything.
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  Speaker 3: So what this does is it makes us a preferred partner,
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  Speaker 3: and it makes it just a lot easier to get
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  Speaker 3: business done, and when it comes to diplomatic ties as well.
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  Speaker 3: So it sounds cheesy, but it's actually quite significant. There's
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  Speaker 3: only about ten other countries in the world that are
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  Speaker 3: in the door with this sort of agreement, and.
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  Speaker 2: What's he promised them in terms of our navy And
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  Speaker 2: because obviously there is a huge dispute between China and
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  Speaker 2: Vietnam and a whole bunch of other players in the
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  Speaker 2: region in the South China see, so what's he promising
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  Speaker 2: here and is it anything to do with China or
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  Speaker 2: is it just to do with Vietnam.
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  Speaker 3: So within the agreement there is a security tingent. Now
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  Speaker 3: we haven't actually seen the details of this, but yesterday
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  Speaker 3: in the Capitol building in Hanoi, when Prime Minister Chris
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  Speaker 3: Chris Luxan rather was talking about this deal with Vietnam's
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  Speaker 3: Prime minister, he almost mentioned it him, almost offhanded, that
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  Speaker 3: he was wanting to explore sending a New Zealand Navy
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  Speaker 3: vessel to Vietnam. And of course Vietnam's shoreline is the
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  Speaker 3: South China Sea. So immediately alarm bells were perking up
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  Speaker 3: in my ears, given the contentious nature of that region,
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  Speaker 3: but also what's happening in our own backyard in the
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  Speaker 3: Tasman Sea with the Chinese warships, So it was it
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  Speaker 3: seems like at this stage he's just he's just floated
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  Speaker 3: the idea, he's thinking about it, and it's not the
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  Speaker 3: first time we've seen a ship come through that area
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand ship. But given the context of everything
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  Speaker 3: that's happening right now, it does make you kind of
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  Speaker 3: cock your eyebrows a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: So how's he actually behaving? How's he how's he fearing?
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  Speaker 2: I guess with all these questions about his you know,
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  Speaker 2: his corporate speak and all the you know, he's had
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  Speaker 2: a few bad polls, how does he look over there?
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  Speaker 2: How does what's his demeanor like in these stand ups
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  Speaker 2: and when you're interacting with him, To be honest.
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  Speaker 3: He's in his element. I mean when he's overseas, he's
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  Speaker 3: actually just like the energizer Bunny because he gets around
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  Speaker 3: these events and he's talking to people and he's shaking
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  Speaker 3: hands and he's doing everything that he likes to be doing.
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  Speaker 3: There's always a number of people around him, and nobody
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  Speaker 3: works room like Chris Luxen. I mean, you've got to
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  Speaker 3: drag him out of there. And I always feel bad
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  Speaker 3: for his aides who are constantly just tapping him on
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  Speaker 3: the shoulders saying it's time to go Prime minister. So
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  Speaker 3: he's firing well in that regard. However, you know that
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  Speaker 3: that Mike Hoskin interview did follow him here and yesterday
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  Speaker 3: when he was talking to press, he answered the question
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  Speaker 3: and said, yes, if he hadn't a resigner would have
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  Speaker 3: sacked him. You would have thought that that's something that
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  Speaker 3: he could have done to save him a bunch of
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  Speaker 3: pain in the beginning, that it's a lesson that I
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  Speaker 3: don't think he's going to make. What's a mistake he's
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  Speaker 3: not going to make.
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  Speaker 2: Again, certainly not Jason, thank you for that. I think
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  Speaker 2: you've got to have bought a plane to ho Chi,
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  Speaker 2: Minh City, So good luck with that, Jason. Wolves News Talks,
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  Speaker 2: they'd be political editor.
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