The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta is in China for the first face to face meeting with her new counter-part, Qin Gang, in Beijing.
It's the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile - thousands of kilometres to the West - China's president Xi Jinping has been meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.
Overnight President Xi described Russia and China as "strategic partners" and "great neighbouring powers".
Otago University associate professor Nicholas Khoo is a specialist in Chinese foreign policy
He spoke to Kim Hill.
