Prime minister leaves London, heads to Gallipoli
Thursday, 24 April 2025
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has concluded his three-day trip to the UK where he met British PM Keir Starmer and King Charles en route to Gallipoli.
He’s now travelling to Turkey for Anzac Day commemorations before heading to Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday.
During his time in the UK Luxon also met with New Zealand and British soldiers who are training Ukranian soldiers on British soil, as well as UK Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds and Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Steve Reed.
Top of the agenda for both countries’ discussions were trade and their ongoing support of Ukraine as peace talks with Russia, negotiated by the United States, appear to be fizzling.
Luxon described his time with Starmer, during which they both travelled to a training facility where they met with New Zealand and British troops delivering training to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as “highly productive”.
Said Luxon: “Prime Minister Starmer and I underlined our commitment to the international rules-based system. We also talked about boosting bilateral trade and investment, especially while the global economy is under such extreme pressure.
“Export growth will be critical to improving our economic prospects in the coming years so our businesses can create more jobs and lift incomes for Kiwis.”
According to Starmer, he welcomed New Zealand’s bolstered defence spending in its Defence Capability Plan, and according to a statement from his office “the leaders agreed on the importance of working together to support regional stability and counter malign threats”, as well as the countries’ trade, and the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The prime ministers also agreed to refresh the Joint Statement on Defence Cooperation and Luxon also announced New Zealand would extend the deployment of New Zealand Defence personnel to the UK and Europe to train Ukrainian soldiers until December 2026.
To that end, Starmer also announced a UK deal with Tauranga-based drone-maker Syos Aerospace worth £30 million (NZ$67 million), to supply unmanned military vehicles for use in Ukraine. Syos has manufacturing sites in Hampshire in England and in Tauranga.
Luxon also hosted an investment roundtable with British business leaders to promote New Zealand, and witnessed commercial deals between UK and New Zealand companies, which Luxon said were worth more than $120m.
That included airports and utilities software developer Gentrack, which signed deals with UK’s Utility Warehouse, which is the brand name of parent company, stock exchange-listed Telecom Plus, and green energy retailer Ecotricity (the deal was first announced late last year) and Wave Utilities, a non-household water utility, with which Gentrack also already works.