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New Zealand FM to lobby for former leader's bid for UN top job

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully will begin next week lobbying for former prime minister Helen Clark's bid to become United Nations Secretary-General during visits to the UN and Europe.

McCully said Friday he would travel to New York at the weekend for a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East region on April 18 and undertake related bilateral meetings.

He would then travel to London to meet with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, and on to Berlin for talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He would then continue to Paris for meetings in support of New Zealand's engagement in the UN Security Council.

"My meetings in the UK, Germany and France are an opportunity to discuss how New Zealand can work with our European partners on issues of common interest on the UN Security council agenda," McCully said in a statement.

"I will also be using my time in Europe to support Helen Clark's candidacy for UN Secretary-General, and to discuss the New Zealand-EU Free Trade Agreement."

The New Zealand government formally nominated Clark for the UN's highest post earlier this month.

Clark, 66, served as prime minister of a government led by the center-left Labour Party from 1999 to 2008 and has been the first woman Administrator of the UN Development Programme since April 2009.

Current Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ends his term in December and eight candidates have been declared.

The job has traditionally been shared around the regional groupings, and Eastern Europe is seen as next in line.

New Zealand is in the "Western Europe and Others" grouping. Endit