The Ambassador in the United Kingdom recalled after comparing Trump’s offer to end the war in Ukraine with the passionate of Nazi Germany.
New Zealand has plundered his ambassador to the United Kingdom after publicly questioning the United States President Donald Trump on his understanding of the events that precipitated World War II.
New Zealand Foreign Minister’s office, Winston Peters, on Thursday said that the United Kingdom High Commissioner Phil Goff was « unsustainable » after his statements during a discussion group in London.
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was in Goff discussions about his return home and had no comment.
Speaking on Wednesday at a Chatham House event with the Finnish Foreign Minister, Elina Valtonen, Goff compared Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine with the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia.
« I re -read Churchill’s speech in the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and went to Chamberlain, said: » You chose between war and dishonor. You have chosen Dishonor, but you will have the war, « Goff said during a Q&A session, referring to the former Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain.
« President Trump has restored Churchill’s bust in the oval office. But do you think he really understands the story? »
Decline to answer Goff’s question directly, Valtonen said that Churchill had made many « timeless observations ».
In a publication in X, former New Zealand Minister Helen Clark criticized Goff’s raison d’être as a « very fine excuse. »
Clark, directed by New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, said he had heard many people attract similar parallels when he attended the Munich Security Conference last month in Germany.
Speaking to journalists later on Thursday, Peters said he had made a necessary decision but « seriously disappointing. »
« We cannot make people comments, affect our future, no matter what the country is, be it NIUE, Samoa, Tonga, Japan or, I dare to say, in the United States, » said Peters.
« When you are in this position, represent the government and the policies of the day. You are not able to stop thinking. You are New Zealand’s face, « he added.
GOFF did not immediately respond to a comment request through his account X.
Prior to his appointment as a maximum diplomat in the United Kingdom in 2023, Goff served in several ministerial portfolios, including foreign affairs, and made two mandates as mayor of Auckland.
Leave a Reply