New Zealand has dismissed its most senior envoy to the United Kingdom for remarks that questioned the history of US President Donald Trump.
During an event in London on Tuesday, the high-commissioner in the United Kingdom Phil Goff compared the efforts to end the war between Russia and Ukraine at the 1938 Munich Agreement, which enabled Adolf Hitler to annex Czechoslovakia.
Goff recalled how Sir Winston Churchill criticized the agreement, then said about the American chief: “President Trump restored Churchill’s bust at the oval office. But do you think he really understands the story?”
Goff’s comments were “deeply disappointing” and made his position “untenable,” said New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.
Goff’s comments occurred after Trump interrupted military aid to kyiv following a stormy exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.
He contrasted Trump with Churchill who, when he was distant from the British government, spoke about the Munich Agreement when he saw him as a surrender to the threats of Nazi Germany.
Goff quoted how Churchill had reprimanded British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: “You had the choice between war and dishonor. You have chosen dishonor, but you will have war.”
Peters said Goff’s opinions did not represent those of the New Zealand government.
“When you are in this position, you represent the government and the policies of the day, you are unable to release reflection, you are the face of New Zealand,” said Peters, the local media said that Peters.
“This is not the way you behave like the front of a country, diplomatically,” he said.
Goff was the High Commissioner since January 2023. Before that, he served in several ministerial portfolios, including justice, foreign affairs and defense.
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark criticized Goff’s dismissal, saying that he was supported by a “very thin excuse”.
“I was at the Munich Security Conference recently where many establish parallels between Munich 1938 and American actions now,” she wrote in an article on X.
