MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

NZ minister to visit Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay

Minister Winston Peters

New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters leaves Tuesday on a two-week visit of South America and the aim is to build closer political, economic, and personal links with the region, reports the Auckland press.

Mr. Peters will visit Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, all Mercosur full members -- the priority countries under the current NZ government's Latin America strategy. In Brazil he's scheduled to meet President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva; Argentine Foreign Affairs minister Jorge Taiana in Buenos Aires and in Uruguay, Foreign Affairs minister Reinaldo Gargano. He is also expected to meet Uruguay's president Tabare Vazquez. Mr Peters said New Zealand's links with Brazil have grown significantly since the opening of an embassy in Brasilia in 2001, adding that Brazil has been a valuable partner for New Zealand on many multilateral issues "and there is huge scope for expanding the economic and political relationship". In Argentina there was an obvious affinity for New Zealand that could be built on at the highest levels, said Peters. The working holiday scheme, which began in 2003, had been a great success with 1000 young Argentines coming to New Zealand each year. "The visit to Uruguay comes at a time of increased New Zealand investment in Uruguay's agricultural sector" he said. In Uruguay, Mr Peters will also visit sites commemorating New Zealand's involvement in the Battle of the River Plate during World War 2 with HMNZS Achilles, which saw the German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled in December 1939.