New Zealand has fired its most top minister to the UK after making comments that questioned US President Donald Trump’s understanding of history.
High Commissioner to the UK Phil Goff compared efforts to end the Russian-Ukraine War to the 1938 Munich Agreement, which gave Adolf Hitler the right to annex Czechoslovakia, at an event in London on Tuesday.
Goff recalled Sir Winston Churchill’s criticism of the deal and finally remarked about the US head,” President Trump has restored the statue of Churchill to the Oval Office.” But do you believe that he actually comprehends story?
Winston Peters, the foreign minister of New Zealand, called Goff’s comments “deeply upsetting” and “untenable” and called for “deeply disappointing.”
Goff’s comments came after Trump paused military aid to Kyiv following a heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.
Trump and Churchill squared off against the Munich Agreement because they both saw it as a retreat to Nazi Germany’s risks, despite being separated from the American government.
Goff cited Churchill’s statement criticizing then-UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as saying,” You had the choice between conflict and dishonor. You went to war, but you chose dishonor.
Goff’s opinions, according to Peters, did not reflect those of the New Zealand authorities.
When you are in that position, you represent the government and the laws of the day, according to local media reports Peters saying.” You are the experience of New Zealand,” you say.
” It’s not the way you act diplomatically as the front face of a state,” he said.
Since January 2023, Goff has served as great director. Prior to that, he held various supervisory positions, including those in fairness, foreign affairs, and defense.
Helen Clark, the ex-prime minister, claimed Goff’s dismissal was supported by a “very slender reason.”
She wrote in a blog on X that” I recently attended the Munich Security Conference, where some draw comparisons between US deeds of 1938 and the present.”