Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she will bring her baby daughter along when she attends the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Ms Ardern, 38, returned to her post as Prime Minister on Thursday, after taking six weeks maternity leave to bond with her daughter Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, born on June 21.
She spoke to Newshub on the day of her return to office.
Her partner Clarke Gayford, 40, will serve as the child's primary caregiver now that Ms Ardern is back in her leading role. But he and Neve will join the PM when she travels to New York in September for the United Nations conference.
"Just by the virtue of the fact that [Neve] is so young, she will be for instance travelling with me for my first longer extended trip which is the United Nations General Assembly at the end of September. She will be coming with me," Ms Ardern told Newshub.
She said it looks as though climate change will be high on the agenda at the conference, as will issues around women and children.
Things have gone relatively smoothly during Ms Ardern's maternity leave. She said the period went "exactly as I expected it would", during which time Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters took on the role of Acting Prime Minister.
"I work with the Deputy Prime Minister every day and I knew that this period would be solid, and that everyone should have the confidence that we would continue the momentum as a Government collectively and that he'd do a great job and he has," she told Newshub.
The past few months have been nothing short of a whirlwind for the Prime Minister. She stood alongside her partner Mr Gayford on June 24 at Auckland Hospital as they introduced their daughter to the world amid a flurry of local and international media buzz.
The world watched as Ms Ardern became the second head of government to have given birth while in office, after the late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who gave birth to her daughter Bakhtawar in 1990 when she was in office.
Ms Ardern was named one of the 40 most influential people in the world under the age of 40 last month. Her partner Mr Gayford joked on Twitter that he's just satisfied to have paid off his student loan by that age.
Newshub.
