Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Carmel Sepuloni [Source: Otago Daily Times]

New Zealand will begin a weeklong Pacific Mission to three Pacific countries today.

The delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister and Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Carmel Sepuloni, will depart for the Solomon Islands today and visit Fiji and Tonga before returning on Friday, April 21st.

This is the first to be undertaken since COVID-19.

Sepuloni says New Zealand is committed to working together to tackle the challenges faced in the region, such as climate change, cost of living pressures, global inflation, and heightened strategic competition in the Pacific.

Sepuloni says the Pacific region remains our government’s foreign policy priority.

She adds that a Pacific-led approach will be taken to solving the issues facing the region, not least of which is climate change.

The Pacific Mission provides an invaluable opportunity to strengthen regional relationships.

Carmel Sepuloni will be accompanied by Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw, and a delegation including parliamentary and NGO representatives, business and community leaders, and Pacific youth.