Prime Minister Christopher Luxon participating in a cooking demonstration at Fonterra's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
Analysis: The Prime Minister has shown his increasing strength at foreign policy events while at the same time showing his ongoing deficiencies at giving simple answers about domestic issues under pressure.
Christopher Luxon is returning from Vietnam celebrating New Zealand's accession to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
In real-world terms, it allows for more co-operation in areas like political engagement, trade, and defence, without setting specific targets or monetary values.
Despite the sometimes vague nature of these agreements, being able to say New Zealand is only the tenth country to secure such an arrangement is a political win.
Striking a deal now with a rising 'tiger economy' as it experiences such rapid growth means New Zealand businesses can get in the door relatively early, and members of the delegation accompanying the Prime Minister were thrilled to explore the opportunities.
Despite Luxon's positioning New Zealand as "smack-bang" in the middle of the Indo-Pacific, he is acutely aware that we need a deal with Vietnam far more than it needs one with us.
Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
The challenge facing him and the wider foreign affairs and trade team was convincing Vietnam of the ways it does actually need us, and so in that metric, striking such a deal is a success.
As for what the Vietnamese powers-that-be think of the deal, we'll just have to take Luxon's word for it. As is custom in this part of the world, supposed press conferences are actually just 'statements, no questions, get out now please.'
Salesman-in-chief
Despite frustration often seeping into his voice and demeanour back home, Luxon overseas is a man unleashed, highly energised and willing to try his hand at anything, even if (or perhaps because) he knows the cameras are poised and ready to capture any pratfalls.
It is a skill he perfected on the election campaign, and while he does not have the 'star-power' that Jacinda Ardern had, he is far more game to give things a go.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon participating in a cooking demonstration at Fonterra's headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
Luxon believes that right now, what New Zealand needs a salesman, and is more than happy to assume that role, whether it means banging a drum, climbing on an electric moped and giving it the ol' vroom voom, or donning an apron to apply the finishing touches to a molluscs and cream concoction (and then eating it with every camera trained on him, despite the myriad risks of such an endeavour).
Trips like these have to run to the millisecond, and sometimes drastic measures are needed to pry him away. A visit to one business in Ho Chi Minh City risked cutting into a meeting with the Party Secretary at the Independence Palace, until someone held a piece of paper to the window, telling the speakers to wrap it up.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh from the official welcome ceremony and guard of honour in Hanoi. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
Other times, it's Luxon himself that poses the most risk to things going awry. His handlers and security frequently often face a Herculean task extracting him from a crowd in order to get to the next event.
Luxon's right hand will be exhausted from all the shaking it's been doing, as he presided over countless memorandums of understanding that ranged from research agreements between Vietnamese and New Zealand universities, to a new direct flight route between Ho Chi Minh City and Auckland.
He is also becoming more comfortable and relaxed around world leaders. Despite the language barrier, he shared a strong rapport with Pham Minh Chinh, saying they found common ground on their passion for education.
He still has a habit of nodding his head and uttering "awesome" while they speak to him, which may work standing next to a pal like Anthony Albanese, but it's less edifying when sitting in Hanoi's cavernous Central Party Committee Office, in front of an enormous golden bust of Ho Chi Minh, and talking to the General Secretary of the Communist Party.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh from the official welcome ceremony and guard of honour in Hanoi. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
Regional security, domestic disharmony
Throughout the trip, Luxon repeated to leaders that New Zealand's prosperity is tied to the region's prosperity, not just economically but also on matters of security.
He delivered one of his strongest overseas speeches to an Association of Southeast Nations 'future forum,' in which he chastised other nations for choosing power over rules, and pleaded for transparency as militaries modernise.
But when asked by media later to volunteer a specific nation his speech was targeting, Luxon demurred and instead gave a long answer that essentially re-hashed part of his speech.
It is these communication challenges that continue to dog the Prime Minister even while he's halfway around the world.
Shortly before jetting off to Vietnam, he was unable to give a straight answer on whether he would have sacked Andrew Bayly if he had not offered his resignation.
Eventually, with the benefit of hindsight and a 13 hour flight, he finally offered a simple "yes," but it did not have to be as hard as it was.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon beats the drum during his visit to Hanoi. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter
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