Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and US President Joe Biden spoke this morning about stability in the Indo-Pacific region and Covid-19, ahead of the high-profile APEC meeting this evening.
1 NEWS understands Ardern was not expecting the call from Biden this morning.
Arrangements were made after New Zealand Government officials received a call at 3am this morning informing them Biden wished to speak to Ardern, according to her office.
"The United States and New Zealand share many common values and interests, including a commitment to an open and rules-based Indo-Pacific," Ardern said.
"President Biden and I discussed the forthcoming APEC leaders meeting and the critical importance of working together as a region to navigate out of the Covid-19 pandemic."
In his own statement, Biden said he underscored the US' commitment to the region.
"President Biden commended Prime Minister Ardern for her steadfast and effective leadership throughout the pandemic," the White House statement said.
He thanked Ardern for hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Virtual Leaders’ informal meeting this evening, "and they agreed on the importance of multilateral institutions and economic cooperation throughout the region".
Ardern said the talk was "a chance to touch base beforehand to talk about trade, Covid and the Pacific".
"President Biden’s interest in our region and also New Zealand is always so apparent in the times we’ve spoken.
"Looking forward to continuing to build what is already a really strong relationship."
Ardern said she "raised the importance of strengthening the economic architecture in the region post-Covid in order to facilitate greater trade and investment".
"We also discussed the vaccine roll-out, both domestically and in the Pacific region and both our countries efforts to ensure vaccine availability."
She thanked Biden for joining the Christchurch Call "and how their membership has provided momentum to the work to eradicate violent extremist content online".
Ardern spoke to Biden last year after he was elected to President, during that phone call they talked about Covid-19 and climate change.
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