00:00But now moving on in the context of instability in the Gulf, growing pressure on global energy
00:05security and the scramble for critical raw materials, over 1,000 representatives from
00:09over 55 countries have gathered in Brussels for talks. Among them is the former New Zealand
00:14Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who joins us now in the studio. Welcome. Thank you. So welcome to
00:18Brussels. Just tell us more about what brings you here. It is the Extractive Industries Transparency
00:23Initiative Global Conference. It happens once every three years and we bring the whole family
00:29that supports this initiative together. That's governments both supporting and countries
00:34implementing the EITI best practice good governance standard. We also have company members from across
00:41the extractives and civil society members from around the world. That all sounds very clunky and
00:46kind of distant to our viewers. What are you actually trying to achieve here? So it was set up basically
00:51to fight corruption in the extractive industries, oil, gas, minerals. Everyone will remember blood
00:57diamonds in Sierra Leone. You remember civil war in Nigeria over oil. There's been a lot of
01:04corruption traditionally around these sectors in many countries. This initiative was set up
01:09to drive it out and to have countries change their laws and policies and the way they governed
01:16these sectors to get better results for people. And while you're here, of course, our trade commissioner
01:21is over in Beijing. So everyone in Brussels is talking about China and the very tense EU-China
01:25relations. We've also seen Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron calling for perhaps the use of a big
01:30bazooka. What would be your advice here for Europeans? When I was New Zealand Prime Minister,
01:35we became the first Western country to sign a free trade agreement with China. And I have to say,
01:42it underpinned New Zealand's prosperity for a long time. Now, it's very important to keep diverse markets,
01:48of course. But China isn't going anywhere. China is a fact of life. Countries have to engage with China.
01:55The European Commission has to engage with China. It is a power in the world. It is a huge economy.
02:02And we have
02:03to work out how we engage and how we interact.
02:06And do you think they'll manage and save off a trade war?
02:09Well, do you want another trade war? You know, there's an American trade war. Do you want a China trade
02:14war?
02:14Well, look, we need people talking. I am a great fan of Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada,
02:20who's very pragmatic. His country was quite estranged from China over a number of things.
02:25He's gone there. He's talking. He's engaging. He's engaging with Europe, too. We need more
02:30pragmatic leaders who can look at how we engage around our common interests.
02:34Well, he certainly is engaging in Europe, so much so that he was in Strasbourg recently delivering a
02:38speech. The idea of an associate membership for Canada was even floated. Is that something that
02:43New Zealand would also like to explore?
02:45I'm very interested in that agreement, because I recall having a dinner with a former
02:50chair of the Commission many years ago when I was PM and came to Brussels. And he said,
02:55you know, there's one country that meets every single criterion for membership of the EU,
03:00except geography. That's New Zealand. So the association agreement could be very interesting.
03:07So what would it look like?
03:08Well, if it gave access to a common market, wouldn't that be very interesting for a distant
03:14trade country like New Zealand?
03:16And what about defence? Because that's obviously the big topic here.
03:18Well, you see, the issue is how much is Europe, the European Union going to do defence vis-a-vis
03:25NATO? We are not obviously in NATO. We're a very long way away. But we should be in the conversation
03:31about what an association agreement means.
03:34And just one final comment. Brexit is back on the political agenda. We've had UK ministers
03:39in Strasbourg this week and also participating in meetings in Ireland who have the EU presidency
03:43now. What would your view here be?
03:46This is an incredibly difficult political issue in Europe, in the United Kingdom. And what the
03:52Prime Minister won't want to do is fire up Nigel Farage and the anti-Brexit team again. But
03:57there's no doubt, in my view, that Britain getting closer to the single market again would be
04:03good for the British economy and the British people.
04:05Okay, Helen Clark, thank you so much for joining us here this morning on Europe Today and best
04:09of luck for your talks today in Brussels.
