WELLINGTON: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a rare visit to New Zealand on Monday, stressing the need to work with `friends` in the face of the `tumultuous international situation`.

The trip marks the start of a diplomatic blitz through New Zealand and Australia, Wang`s first visit to either country since 2017.

The whistle-stop tour is expected to focus heavily on trade as Beijing looks to lessen the pain from slowing economic growth at home.

Speaking in the capital Wellington before a meeting with his New Zealand counterpart, Wang said the trip was also a chance to shore up diplomatic ties that have come under strain as Beijing adopts an increasingly aggressive stance on issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.

`In the face of the current tumultuous international situation, we are willing to strengthen strategic communication with our friends in New Zealand on international and regional issues of common concern,` Wang said.

`And we will work together to maintain peace and stability in the region and the world,` he added before his closed-door meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance alongside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

But Wellington has been criticised fortaking a softer line on China putting its trading relationship ahead of its allies` security concerns.

In a statement on Monday, Peters said the talks touched on `trade, business, and people-to-people links`, but also acknowledged `areas of difference such as human rights`.

`We also highlighted New Zealand and China`s shared interest in a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region and raised concerns over increased tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait,` he added.

China is New Zealand`s largest trading partner, and Chinese consumers have long had an appetite for the country`s meat, wine, milk and wood.

Wang said he believed that `ChinaNew Zealand relations will continue to be at the forefront of China`s relations with developed countries`.

`The relationship between us has developed smoothly and well,` he said.

Later this week, Wang will meet Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra.

China and Australia have recently resolved a series of simmering trade disputes that saw Beijing impose tariffs and trade barriers on key exports in 2020, retaliating after Canberra barred Huawei from 5G contracts and called for a probe into the origins of Covid-19.

But the two nations continue to spar over human rights and Beijing`s growing clout in the Pacific region.-AFP