NZ's gun buyback sparked Trump's interest, Ardern says after meeting with US president

September 24, 2019

The two world leaders, in New York for the UN General Assembly, spoke for about 20 minutes today in a closed-door session.

It's been a busy day for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in New York with several high-profile meetings and appearances.

Ms Ardern spoke to media shortly after sitting down with US President Donald Trump for 25 minutes.

She described it as an "excellent meeting" which was "perfectly productive".

Mr Trump took an interest in New Zealand's gun buyback scheme in response to the March 15 attacks. 

"It was a conversation around our buyback and obviously the work that we'd done to remove military-style semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles, and so we had a conversation around what would have happened in New Zealand, how it worked," Ms Ardern told media. 

The Prime Minister met with British counterpart Boris Johnson and held a meeting with Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg,

"I referenced the fact that actually Australia had gone through a similar process and we really learnt from that so it was really just sharing our experience, which obviously is pretty unique."

When asked by media if there was a sense he had some movement on his stance, Ms Ardern said, "I just sensed an interest."

"I mean obviously we were able to move very quickly and with consensus and I think that obviously stood out to the world the fact that we had that political consensus across members of Parliament - everyone but one person voting in favour - and so I think that sparked interest amongst others," she said. "I certainly wouldn't want to predetermine that that means anything particular for the United States other than an interest in what we did."

Ms Ardern said Trump "listened with interest", and also noted he had also met with one of the survivors of the attacks - Farid Ahmed - in July.

The PM met with her British and American counterparts, as well as with key leaders from the tech industry.

When asked if they talked specifically about the Christchurch Call, Ms Ardern said the conversation was more general on what happened in Christchurch, adding that regardless of the US signing up, there had been good participation from the nation.

She said during their meeting they also talked about trade, tourism, and discussed several national security issues - however she wouldn't say if it was specific to Iran.

She said the conversation on trade was "met with enthusiasm by the president", adding she expected ongoing talks on the topic.

"Obviously being in a trade surplus, I think that's an acknowledgment of the relationship that already exists and so the idea of continuing a conversation around New Zealand's trade relationship with the United States was greeted warmly."

Ms Ardern said, though, "trade conversations take a significant amount of time, but that fact that there was that enthusiasm there to continue those conversations, I think is really important".

"President Trump displays New Zealand very warmly, views the relationship very warmly and holds New Zealanders in very high regard," she said.

Ms Ardern also met with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today in which they discussed a post-Brexit free trade agreement.

In addition, she had a behind-closed-doors discussion with Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg in which talks focused on bringing those in power together to combat violence and extremism online. It comes as Ms Ardern continues her work after the Christchurch Call - which is in response to the March 15 terrorist attacks.

The Prime Minister also addressed the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

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