Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs

09 May 2006

Peters names next Ambassador to Manila

New Zealand’s next Ambassador to Manila will be career diplomat David Pine, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today.

“This year sees the fortieth anniversary of New Zealand-Philippines relations. The relationship has grown from one based initially on development assistance to one where the Philippines is now New Zealand’s top export market in South East Asia.

“I am delighted that Mr Pine will be our Ambassador as we continue to build our already close relationship with such an influential player in the region,” Mr Peters said.

New Zealand and the Philippines are also partners in ASEAN and the East Asia Summit and this year they co-sponsored the regional Interfaith Dialogue meeting in Cebu. The Philippines assumes the chair of ASEAN in July and will host the Second East Asia Summit in December this year.

Mr Pine joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 1993 and was most recently the Deputy Director of the Ministry’s Australia Division. His previous overseas assignments have included Kuala Lumpur, Canberra and New York.

He will take up his assignment in May replacing Rob Moore-Jones who is returning to Wellington.

ENDS

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