PM departs for international summits during heightened tensions

The prime minister is expecting heightened global tensions and particularly Russia's war in Ukraine to feature prominently at the two international summits she's attending over the next week.

Jacinda Ardern is travelling to the East Asia Summit in Phnom Penh Cambodia, conducting a brief trade trip to Vietnam and then attending APEC in Bangkok, Thailand.

"These are incredibly important regional summits and they're an opportunity for New Zealand to recommit to forums that drive consensus that drive dialogue over confrontation in an increasingly tense environment," Ardern said before she left.

"Overall I do expect tension that has been on the world stage to be reflected in our own region."

The war in Ukraine, climate change and Myanmar's military dictatorship are expected to feature prominently, but of particular concern to New Zealand is growing trade protectionism.

Ardern said many nations are struggling with high inflation and rising food prices and are retreating from trade talks and agreements.

Dozens of nations have placed export bans on key crops and other agricultural products this year as they look to ensure they have enough domestic food supply.

Ardern said it's having an impact on New Zealand too, with some of our trading partners not wanting to talk about trade at the moment.

"As we've seen food prices rise, as we've seen issues in some cases a knock-on effect from the war in Ukraine, some leaders are calling for what is essentially greater forms of protection, either walking away form existing trade arrangements or seeking not to engage in future trade arrangements," she said.

"New Zealand has a long-standing and principled position that actually solving the world's global food shortages will be achieved by making sure that we trade with one another on fair terms and on fair access, there are some who ideologically disagree with that."

US President Joe Biden is attending the East Asian Summit while Vice President Kamala Harris will be attending APEC.

Biden is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, early next week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending a representative to APEC on his behalf.