Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters is "brassed off" after New York road closures stopped him from attending a presidential reception, for the second time.
Peters had been invited to a reception with Donald Trump on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday night (local time).
But because of the sheer number of world leaders in the city at the moment, road closures are frequent as they travel around the Big Apple in their motorcades.
Peters was unable to make it, a repeat of last year, when closures prevented him from attending the same event.
Peters said he was "brassed off" that he once again missed the reception.
"I'm sorry about that, but that's the way life goes. I might be able to make up for it before I go," he said.
He said he would have made different travel arrangements if he had known he'd be stuck a second time.
"Being in this country, way out in the southwest Pacific called New Zealand, you take every chance you possibly get. You don't blow anything."
France's President Emmanuel Macron experienced similar issues when his motorcade was blocked.
He had the President on speed dial – and called Trump to try get it sorted.
French President Emmanuel Macron likes to say that he can get President Donald Trump on the phone any time he wants. In New York for the UN General Assembly, he proved it. (Source: Reuters)
While he missed out on the Presidential reception, Peters has still managed to attend several other sideline events at the General Assembly.
Among them was the fifth annual Crimea Platform Summit, where he heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speak. Peters reinforced New Zealand's position that the UN Charter prohibited the use of force to change internationally recognised borders.
"The reason New Zealand continues to play its part, despite our distance from the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, is that we recognise that a violation of sovereignty anywhere is a violation everywhere, and that respecting Ukraine's sovereignty remains critical to the future of international peace and security," he told the summit.
Peters said Zelensky had expressed his country's gratitude for the support it received since Russia's invasion began.
He also sat down with Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand.
"We made a commitment that we're going to step up our arrangements and our association and our collective work together."
"Honestly, if you look at the Five Eyes countries, the country that we've least dealt with is Canada, and I can tell you from experience it's because of far too many political appointments rather than career experts in the job, and we're setting out to correct that."
Perters was due to deliver his speech to the UN on Saturday.
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a serious crash closes roads in central Auckland, how smugglers try to sneak cigarettes into the country, and Zelensky’s message at the UN. (Source: Breakfast)
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