Jacinda Ardern reaffirms her stance on missile strikes on Syria as she meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin

April 18, 2018

The pair met at the Federal Chancellery during the Prime Minister's Europe trip.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern received a red carpet welcome with full military honours as she met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin overnight.

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The PM made the comments during her meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The pair met at the Federal Chancellery before heading into an hour-long working lunch where the Prime Minister reaffirmed her stance on the missile strikes on Syria. 

Ms Ardern previously said she "accepts" the airstrikes by the US, Britain and France in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma. 

During her meeting with Ms Merkel, Ms Ardern said she "utterly accepts" the military action and continues to question Moscow's involvement in the crisis. 

1 NEWS' Europe Correspondent analyses the Ms Ardern’s meeting with the German Chancellor.

"We have called Russia into account as have others around the role that they play as a supporter of the Assad regime and we will continue to do so" she said. 

The pair discussed a range of key regional and international security challenges, and shared concerns about challenges to global institutions and rising protectionism.

Ms Ardern thanked the Chancellor for Germany's strong support for a free trade agreement between New Zealand and the European Union, and conveyed New Zealand's hope that negotiations would get under way in May.

"We agreed there needed to be a new model for FTAs that reflected social and environmental goals as well as trade, and the importance of rules based trade regimes," Ms Ardern said.

"We also discussed some of the exciting new opportunities opening up that would allow us to build on the long-standing and successful bilateral agreement on science, including the prospect of collaboration between the relevant New Zealand and German agencies on space."

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