US embassy cable - 05WELLINGTON875

C O N F I D E N T I A L WELLINGTON 000875 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR IO/UNP AND EAP/ANP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/09/2015 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, NZ 
SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND ON UN THIRD COMMITTEE RESOLUTIONS, US 
VOTING PRIORITES 
 
REF: SECSTATE 204646 
 
Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission David R. Burnett, 
for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Pol-Econ Counselor discussed reftel points with Val 
Meyer, Deputy Director of the UN, Human Rights, and 
Commonwealth Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and 
Trade.  P-E Couns said that she hoped New Zealand would 
support all the resolutions, especially those involving 
countries with which New Zealand has bilateral relations: 
Iran and North Korea.  (FYI: New Zealand's general policy is 
to cosponsor human rights resolutions involving countries 
with which it has diplomatic or other closer ties, and to 
vote in favor of resolutions against others if the case 
presented warrants this. End FYI.) 
 
2.  (C) Meyer said that New Zealand would cosponsor the 
resolutions against North Korea and Burma, having bilateral 
relations with the former and involvement with the latter 
through ASEAN and NGOs.  She said that New Zealand is still 
examining the Uzbekistan resolution text.  GNZ had not yet 
seen the draft Turkmenistan resolution but would look at it 
seriously. GNZ may vote for both the Turkmenistan and 
Uzbekistan resolutions, but would be unlikely to cosponsor, 
according to Meyer. 
 
3.  (C) Meyer also said that the Government is "taking a 
close look at Iran."  She added that normally New Zealand 
would cosponsor the election monitoring/democracy and 
corruption/human rights resolutions, but the NZ UN official 
charged with Third Committee issues is currently stretched a 
bit thin. Meyer anticipated that New Zealand would nontheless 
vote in favor of both resolutions, and agreed that they are 
not controversial. 
 
4.  (C) Comment: New Zealand has diplomatic relations with 
Iran, and has recently come under criticism by some Kiwis for 
not having taken a strong stance against President 
Ahmadinejad's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map." 
When NZ was on the IAEA Board of Governors two years ago, 
Embassy successfully convinced the Government that PM Clark 
should criticize Iran over its nuclear activities, but we 
really had to push.  End Comment. 
McCormick