Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has met with Myanmar's leader and offered her New Zealand's help in resolving the Rohingya crisis.
Ms Ardern is in Singapore for the East Asia Summit where she has been meeting with key leaders from the region. She first met Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's first female leader, at the summit held last year in the Philippines.
Ms Suu Kyi has recently reduced her overseas travel as calls for accountability have grown since some 700,000 Rohingya fled the country last year, according to UN agencies, as security forces launched a brutal response to insurgent attacks.
Her administration has largely denied allegations of abuses during the operation and has pledged to accept back those who fled, Reuters reports. But an independent UN team of investigators said in August that there was evidence indicating "genocidal intent" by the military.
In the midst of it all, Ms Suu Kyi, once an international icon of the human rights movement after she resisted Myanmar's military rule, is fast losing respect over her apparent indifference to the persecution of Rohingyas by the military under her leadership.
During a bilateral meeting in Singapore, Ms Ardern offered Ms Suu Kyi New Zealand's help in bringing an end to the Rohingya crisis, according to a spokesperson for the Prime Minister.
"New Zealand indicated our willingness to assist in any way we could to achieve an enduring resolution to the situation."
Ms Ardern's meeting with Ms Suu Kyi was one of many bilateral meetings she will have at the East Asia Summit followed by APEC held in Papua New Guinea this weekend. It was at the 2017 APEC summit in Vietnam where Ms Ardern first met US President Donald Trump.
She's expected to meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and US Vice President Mike Pence. Among other leaders at the East Asia Summit include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Prime Minister met with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Singapore on Wednesday, where the pair discussed immigration issues.
"We have seen particular cases where there's been very little connection with New Zealand over an individual that may have been deported to New Zealand," said Ms Ardern.
Newshub.
