PM leads NZ further away from the US and UK

All New Zealanders should be horrified by the Prime Minister's latest attempts to distance New Zealand from our traditional friends - Australia, the US and Britain.

'What everyone's looking at is whether there is going to be a Franco/German/Russia linkup with good links through to the Chinese, against what we have, which looks like a small Anglo/American group,' she told the New Zealand Herald Newspaper.

"So Helen Clark is now saying New Zealand's interests are best served by joining this Franco/German/Russian block," says National Party Leader Bill English.

"The Prime Minister has no public mandate to make such sweeping statements about changing our international alignment.

"Helen Clark is snuggling up to France, which was providing information to Saddam Hussein's secret service and a country which has recently rolled out the red carpet for Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe.

"The Prime Minister's only able to get a 45 minute audience with Britain's Tony Blair when she was able to spend more than twice that amount of time with Jacques Chirac," says Mr English.

"It's must be pretty clear to Tony Blair who's side Helen Clark is on!

"The suggestion that she shares French concerns about the US compounds the impression of a major shift in New Zealand's foreign policy," Mr English says.

"This comment takes Helen Clark way beyond a simple disagreement with the US over the Iraqi war.

"Her obsession with multilateralism now means the Prime Minister is unable to make a sensible judgement about where New Zealand's national interests lie," says Mr English.

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