After postings in war zones, a move to New Zealand brings entirely different challenges for the UK's new high commissioner.
Iona Thomas could be forgiven for questioning her decision to take up residence on our shores.
The new British High Commissioner arrived in Aotearoa at the tail end of the wettest winter on record, while ‘summer’ has scarcely been better; her interview with Newsroom comes on a mercifully calm day in Wellington, between bouts of gale-force winds and driving rain.
At least the weather relented sufficiently over the holiday period to allow a brief South Island holiday - complete with a photo of the iconic Wānaka tree - along with the novelty of her first Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere.
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“The thing that I find most surprising is the light. Christmas in the northern hemisphere, it's all about darkness and candles and being cosy, and here you just have these long evenings…more than the warm sort of weather, it's the light, that's been the biggest [change].”
It’s not just the extra sunlight hours which Thomas is adjusting to. Her previous diplomatic postings have included stints in Pakistan and Libya, while her first role with the foreign office was leading its Afghanistan team while there were still thousands of British troops in the country.
New Zealand must feel positively sedate by comparison - a factor she admits is part of its appeal.
“I'm enjoying having that sort of ability to be more spontaneous, to have freedom of movement, and I think my mother is also probably quite glad.”
The diplomat gravitated to those more dangerous parts of the world not through any regional expertise, but from a desire to work in areas and on issues where diplomatic intervention could have the most profound effect.
“Often, those sort of post-conflict [or] conflict situations are times when diplomacy is very much needed, and where you can really make a big difference by focusing on that…as diplomats we move around every couple of years, but even in a short amount of time you can hopefully have an impact.”
Heading back to work at @UKinNZ tomorrow after a fab break on New Zealand’s incredible South Island. Looking forward to exploring more of beautiful Aotearoa in 2023! 🇳🇿 🏔️ 📸: @mthoume pic.twitter.com/kdu31Bi9ej
— Iona Thomas OBE 🇬🇧 (@IonaCThomas) January 3, 2023
Indeed, it was Thomas’ time in Libya which earned her an OBE for her work reestablishing an embassy in the country following the outbreak of war.
The embassy had been evacuated in 2014 as fighting between rival militias spread throughout the capital of Tripoli. When a peace deal was signed between the rival factions shortly after she joined the relocated team in neighbouring Tunisia, the focus shifted to moving back as swiftly as possible to support the new interim government in its early days.
Evacuating an embassy is relatively easy, but getting it back up and running is a tougher task as Thomas quickly found out.
“Thinking about all the security implications, all of the equipment you need to bring in, housing…how you get cash in and across borders, how you can make sure that your staff can access food and water and health care. It was a huge set of issues to start from the ground up, and to try and work out what a realistic ambition was.”
The team took an incremental approach: at first, they would visit for a few days at a time, then for a few weeks. By the time Thomas left, the office was running a six-weekly rotation which allowed diplomats to form stronger relationships with the government and develop a better sense of what was going on in the country.
The hurried nature of the evacuation was brought home when she became the first person in about two years to step foot in the embassy.
“Just seeing people's desks that still had their coffee cups on them, still had somebody's glasses that they'd left there: it was really eerie going back into that and knowing that people thought, ‘Oh well, we’ll evacuate but we'll be back in two months’, and that two months became two years.”
There is a degree of danger that accompanies such work; Thomas still remembers flying into Afghanistan’s capital Kabul for the first time and thinking to herself, “What have I done?”
But such risks, properly managed, are sometimes an unavoidable part of diplomacy.
“You can't do your job properly unless you're on the ground, unless you're having those face to face conversations, and unless you're understanding it.”
Trade takes priority
The challenges in her New Zealand role are of an entirely different nature. Thomas has had little trade experience in her other postings, but that may well occupy most of her time as high commissioner.
The UK-New Zealand free trade deal was signed in February last year, but still hasn’t come into effect due to delays in ratifying the agreement on the British side - partly due to disruption caused by the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and partly as a result of the UK cycling through three different prime ministers in 2022.
Thomas is hopeful the trade deal will enter into force by April or May this year, with the British government “absolutely committed” to moving ahead despite ongoing grumbles from the country’s farming sector about cheap New Zealand imports undermining their industry.
“There's a job for us to do as a government to explain to them some of the benefits about learning from what New Zealand's doing, about collaborating together on some of the tech and agri-tech…but it won't derail the fact that we're committed to it and want to see it go through as soon as possible.”
The UK is also still forging ahead with its application to join the CPTPP trade deal - a grouping that includes New Zealand - with a further round of negotiations set to take place next month.
Securing membership would link the two countries even closer together in international groupings at a time when the rules-based order is under growing threat, through both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Great Power tensions.
Thomas says the UK will remain steadfast in its support for Ukraine, and sees little reason for optimism about any peace agreement in the near future.
“In order for there to be a diplomatic solution and a negotiation, we would need to see Russia cease its attack on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and withdraw its troops, and at the moment there's no indication that Russia is serious about negotiation.”
In addition to Russia, there is growing concern within the UK about China’s actions at home and abroad. At the end of last year, a UK parliamentary committee recommended China be officially designated as a threat to the country - a position also taken by Liz Truss during her brief, ill-fated stint as prime minister.
“I have actually found people tend to be quite understanding that countries have domestic ups and downs, and that doesn't need to impact on that wider history, experience, [and] breadth of everything that they're bringing to the world.” - Iona Thomas, British High Commissioner
While Truss’ successor Rishi Sunak has since backed away from that stance, Thomas is clear that British concern still remains when it comes to the Asian superpower.
“We definitely see China as a sort of systemic challenge to the UK, its values and norms, and we need to be really clear about defending freedom and human rights.”
At the same time, she says, China has an important role to play in global issues like climate change, making cooperation in some areas as important as calling the country out in others.
Thomas’ predecessor, Laura Clarke, was unafraid of calling out New Zealand for its lack of ambition on climate change - an approach which ruffled some feathers during her time in Wellington. Nonetheless, it’s an approach Thomas intends to emulate given the stakes at play.
“There is a role for friends to hold each other to account, and to see where we could all be doing better, and also to offer some help and expertise.”
That goes both ways: while the UK might be able to help New Zealand when it comes to the transport sector, British officials and politicians can also learn from Aotearoa’s track record on renewable energy and agricultural innovation.
Some Kiwis may be sceptical about taking too many lessons from a country that has gone through five prime ministers in the seven years since voting to leave the European Union, and is currently in the midst of an unseemly war of words involving the royal family.
Certainly, Brexiteers’ hopes of a rejuvenated Britannia on the world stage seem a long way from reality, but Thomas insists the infighting hasn’t affected diplomatic work.
“I have actually found people tend to be quite understanding that countries have domestic ups and downs, and that doesn't need to impact on that wider history, experience, [and] breadth of everything that they're bringing to the world.”
The UK may be grappling with a winter of discontent, but she sees light on the horizon.
