Winston Peters wants to be Pacific’s Trump whisperer

New Zealand is courting the United States to return as a major donor and diplomatic powerhouse in the Pacific after years of indifference to the region by American administrations.

This effort will accelerate in the coming months and take flight at a strengthened Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ meeting in Palau this August.

New Zealand foreign minister Winston Peters has been monitoring bilateral talks with Foreign Minister Marco Rubio ahead of the summit and believes his advocacy could catch the attention of President Donald Trump.

“We’re working on what you might call connections to get into his mental space about this,” Mr. Peters says.

A long-time advocate of Pacific development, he has encouraged the United States to invest in the blue continent for both strategic and humanitarian reasons.

“We want to tell them why this is critically important and how they can do so much in their front yard with ‘minimalist financing,’ as they call it,” he says.

“Our job is to remind them that this is your front yard, just like ours.”

To this end, the 80-year-old leader is delighted that this year’s PIF meeting will again allow the participation of larger powers.

Last year, at the summit hosted by China-friendly Solomon Islands, distances were closed to all non-member countries, including the USA, China, Japan, England and France.

This was widely interpreted as blocking delegates from Taiwan at Beijing’s insistence and blocking the biggest donors to the underdeveloped region.

Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr confirmed the return of these “dialogue partner” nations in 2026, with New Zealand and Australia leading the change.

“This is critical because ultimately we need partners,” Mr. Peters says.

“They had the right to be there (in the Solomon Islands last year) and that right was denied by outsiders in the forum telling insiders what to do.

“We don’t accept that. So it’ll be in Palau this year; they’re all back and they’ll be back in New Zealand next year when we hold the forum.”

Mr. Peters, meanwhile, is making plans to engage privately with the Trump administration, which is radically overhauling U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio denounced their former allies in Europe and disbanded USAID, which pumped tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to poorer countries, mostly in Africa and Asia.

Pacific island nations suffered from the withdrawal, but not as much as other countries due to already low U.S. involvement.

Mr. Peters hopes to arrange a meeting “very shortly” with Mr. Rubio, where he will advocate for the Pacific to be prominent in restructuring foreign policy.

“We’re going to go and talk about how they should be part of the blue continent and not repeat the things they were accused of by a famous man named General Douglas MacArthur,” he says, referring to the US military chief in World War II.

“He says, ‘You’re Eurocentric, you don’t confront and focus on your own region.’ MacArthur said it then, and we’re saying it again.”

As well as seeking deeper US regional ties, Mr Peters is also embracing the new-age policies of Trump’s Republican party for his own political leverage: New Zealand First.

His populist party has adopted slogans and policies similar to the MAGA movement, including the embrace of fossil fuels, anti-immigrant rhetoric, the “war of awakening” and the rollback of transgender rights.

That alignment has won Mr. Peters friends in the Republican administration, but it also reveals tensions between Mr. Peters’ populist politics and his role as New Zealand’s top diplomat.

Mr Peters has resisted calls to dismantle or defund parts of the UN as he rails against “globalists”.

New Zealand did not join Mr Trump’s Peace Board but did not rule out joining either.

“We said we would look at it, but we are not participating at the moment,” Mr. Peters says.

“One thing I know, and that is the essence of conservatism: It is much easier to try and build what you already have, or rearrange what you already have, than to start something new,” he says at the UN.

Mr Peters will lead a multi-party political and trade delegation to Latin America starting this weekend.