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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will speak to reporters in Wellington this afternoon after arriving back from his tour of Malaysia and South Korea.

A livestream of the press conference will be found above at about 4pm.

Luxon returned from Asia on Sunday, having attended the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Gyeongju, South Korea.

During his trip, he met with a large number of world leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping, the United States’ Donald Trump, Australia’s Anthony Albanese, Canada’s Mark Carney, Japan’s Sane Takaichi, Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto, Malaysia’s Anwar bin Ibrahim, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the heads of various Southeast Asian nations.

It was his first in-person meeting with Trump. The pair met briefly one-on-one in a private room in Gyeongju’s Hilton Hotel before joining other politicians for an intimate dinner hosted by the Korean President Lee Jae Myung.

Trump was full of praise for Luxon during an interaction ahead of that dinner. That included telling Luxon his “hair is beautiful” and informing press “I like your man from New Zealand”.

There weren’t always tangible outcomes from these meetings, nor would the Prime Minister always share what was discussed. For example, he wouldn’t go into whether he raised tariffs with Trump during their private discussions.

Some of the arrangements – like brief pull-asides at dinners – don’t allow for extensive conversations about issues, they simply provide facetime between leaders.

There were some announcements from the trip, however, like new upgrades to our relationship with Asean and Korea and progress on a halal agreement with Malaysia.

Luxon said he enjoyed this part of being Prime Minister.

“It’s what I see as a core part of my job, which is to make sure I’m advocating very strongly for New Zealand. I’m building relationships.

“I’m trying to get New Zealand to punch above its weight, to have more influence than its natural size would dictate it do so.”

He wanted Kiwis to see the “massive world of opportunity” for New Zealand and that “we’re living in the most dynamic region in the world”.