Jacinda Ardern has defended the Government's COVID-19 response in an interview with UK media.
Speaking to the BBC, the Prime Minister said it was the "best possible health response", pointing to New Zealand's COVID-19 death rate that's among the lowest in the OECD.
Ardern said recent poll results showing dropping approval ratings was her possibly paying the price of making sure "we've made the right decisions along the way, and that we can sleep at night". A poll last month showed Ardern had dropped to her lowest preferred Prime Minister result since she took office in 2017.
The Prime Minister's initial handling of the pandemic and New Zealand's internationally heralded response to the first COVID-19 waves led her Labour Party to a historic majority election victory in 2020.
Since then, however, she has been criticised over the Government's handling of the chaotic anti-mandate protest at Parliament earlier this year, being slower to reopen New Zealand's borders than many other countries and a mounting cost of living crisis.
Elsewhere in the interview with the BBC, Ardern was asked about New Zealand's relationship with China.
She told the UK broadcaster that "China is a very important trading partner for us" but "there will always be areas in which we will not necessarily agree".
Ardern's comments on China come amid concern over a China-Solomon Islands security cooperation agreement signed earlier this week, raising fears of "serious risks to a free and open Indo-Pacific".
The Prime Minister, currently partaking in her first overseas trip since the pandemic began, told reporters in Singapore on Wednesday there was "no need" for the China-Solomons deal.
"[We] have continued to reiterate with the Solomons and China our view, alongside the Pacific, that collectively we are ready and available to meet the security needs of our neighbour," Ardern said. "We see no need for this agreement. We are concerned about the militarisation of the Pacific and we continue to call on the Solomons to work with the Pacific with any concerns around their security that they may have.
"It only reinforces for us the long-held view by New Zealand in our foreign policy that we must maintain strong relationships in our region."
