<\/p>\n
\nPrime Minister Christopher Luxon had a private audience with King Charles at Windsor Castle, April 2025.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister has had a private audience with the King.<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon met the monarch at Windsor Castle, about 40km west of central London.<\/p>\n
Luxon landed in the United Kingdom on Sunday and is meeting with British officials<\/a> before heading to T\u00fcrkiye later in the week.<\/p>\n He is due to meet with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday and has signalled the pair will discuss trade and security, amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n “New Zealand is a champion for free trade, and I look forward to talking to Sir Keir Starmer about what our countries can do together to support the rules-based trading system,” Luxon said ahead of the trip.<\/p>\n “The UK is also important to New Zealand’s prosperity. Our exports there grew by more than 20 percent in 2024 and are still growing.”<\/p>\n RNZ understands the conversation will focus on broad commercial talks about deepening existing relationships, rather than in-depth trade deal discussions.<\/p>\n Luxon is also expected to speak with business people who attended the government’s Infrastructure Investment Summit in Auckland last month.<\/p>\n Additionally, the visit is an opportunity to reaffirm New Zealand’s defence and security partnership with the UK.<\/p>\n The coalition government recently released its long-awaited Defence Capability Plan, setting out a spending blueprint for the next 15 years.<\/p>\n The government will invest $12 billion over the next four years for a “modern, combat-capable” defence force.<\/p>\n The plan will lift New Zealand’s defence spending from just over 1 percent of GDP to more than 2 percent in the next eight years.<\/p>\n The figure is the lowest threshold the United States approves of from its allies.<\/p>\n The UK announced its own lift in defence spending earlier this year, also reported as a signal to the US.<\/p>\n