Sir Don McKinnon: Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister on Christopher Luxon's phone call to Donald Trump

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has spoken to US President Donald Trump on the phone for the first time since the US election, saying he congratulated Trump on his big win. 

The pair talked about deepening ties between NZ and the US. 

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sir Don McKinnon tells Heather du Plessis-Allan that there will be around 190 prime ministers and presidents eager to speak to Trump, and it seems NZ has been fairly high up in the queue. 

“That’s a good sign.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Heller Duper see Allen. So Chris Luxon has spoken to
Donald Trump on the phone for the first time since
the US election last week. He says he congratulated Trump
on his big winn and then they talked about deepening
ties between New Zealand and the US. So Don McKinnon
is a former deputy Prime ministan forum in Sandy's with US.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Now, Hey, Don, good evening, how are you well? Thank you?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Is this a cove for Luxeon to get this phone
call or is this just what you would expect?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I would hope the reasonably expected. After all, we've
always been pretty good friends with the United States, and
obviously there are one hundred and ninety plus prime ministers
or presidents wanting to talk to the new president of
the United States. So I would say we've been fairly
high up in the queue, and that's a good sign.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Now, I mean the official, the official explanation for what
they talked about is the deepening of ties between New
Zealand and the US. And I struggled to buy that,
given what a wild card Donald Trump is. So what
do you think they actually talked about.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I think Chris Lackson would want to just put in
front of the President. Look, these are the three things
that New Zealand is particularly interested in. One's obviously going
to be trade, second would be security in the Indo
Pacific area, and certainly just the overall relationship. Now, on
the other hand, mister Trump would have had a piece

(01:20):
of paper in front of him which said New Zealand
new Prime Minister Chris Lackson suggests you ask him about
A B and C and so Trump might wanted some
reinformation on the security issues. But look, I'm only guessing.
I've seen a number of these conversations at some point
in my time. They tend to be fairly informally formal.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Put it that way, do you reckon that Chris Lackson
would have gone straight in on the tariffs today?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
No, I wouldn't think he'd go straight in on tariffs.
So I think he would highlight the fact that New Zealand,
as a trading nation, we've always had a good relationship
with the United States and hope it could continue.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Brilliant stuff. Hey, thank you very much, Sir Don Mkin
and former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign at Fairs Minister in
the past as well. For more from hither, Duplessy Allen Drive.
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