New Ambassador to Chile announced

Foreign Minister Murray McCully today announced diplomat Jacqui Caine as New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Chile.

“Chile is New Zealand's longest standing friend in Latin America and there is growing commercial investment by New Zealand companies in Chile, particularly in the agricultural and energy sectors,” Mr McCully says.

“Chile is active in Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, and a member of the Pacific Alliance, of which New Zealand is an active observer. These mechanisms reinforce the bonds that increasingly connect New Zealand and Latin America.

“Chile is also an important education market, with up to 300 scholarship students coming to New Zealand every year. There are also indigenous linkages between New Zealand and Chile, which Ms Caine, who is of Ngai Tahu descent, will seek to strengthen.

“We work together in a number of multilateral organisations and will serve a year together on the United Nations Security Council in 2015,” Mr McCully says.

Ms Caine has served as the Deputy Ambassador to Mexico and has been posted to Singapore and Vanuatu.

As Ambassador to Chile, Ms Caine will also be accredited to Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Bolivia.

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