Speaking to FMT ahead of the 47th Asean Summit, Luxon called for nations caught in the crosswinds of superpower rivalry to work together to uphold a stable, rules-based order.

“Our future really lies in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said, referring to Asean’s broader neighbourhood which includes major powers such as China, India, Russia and the United States.

The Indo-Pacific region is grappling with intensifying pressures—including a sharpening of the US-China rivalry, heightened risks in key trade routes like the South China Sea, and shifting transnational alignments.

With established institutions like the World Trade Organization and the United Nations struggling to make headway, Luxon said middle powers must step up to bridge gaps in global agenda-setting and diplomatic leadership.

“The international rules-based system which has served the Asean countries incredibly well over the last 70 or 80 years is breaking down,” he said.

“What we’re seeing increasingly is might and power matters more than rules.”

For Luxon, the answer is not to retreat, but to lean in. He said Asean must work to shore up the rules which have helped trade-dependent countries like New Zealand and Malaysia prosper.

“I think, absolutely, there’s a huge opportunity for us to reaffirm the rules-based system,” he told FMT.

He said blocs like the European Union, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and Asean “have a very important role to play in how we behave with each other under pressure in a global trading environment.”

Luxon stressed that for smaller countries like New Zealand, these rules are not just ideals — they’re existential.

“It matters a lot to us as a small country that we have agency on our own,” he said. “We try and keep modelling out new ways of working.”

He pointed to New Zealand’s early efforts with Singapore to help forge what would eventually become the CPTPP as a case in point.

“The things that we’re trying to pioneer and pathfind—there’s a way we can do that as an Asean region.”

For New Zealand and many other countries, maintaining peace and securing economic resilience is paramount, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and made governments reassess trade and self-sufficiency policies.

“Asean can convene a series of very important countries in the world and amplify that position and that voice. There are a lot of challenges in the world, but there are also a lot of opportunities,” Luxon explained.

“The question is: are we, as the leaders of Asean, going to step together, work together and actually realise those (opportunities) for the benefit of our people,” he said.

Peace, prosperity and people

Luxon said New Zealand’s focus at the upcoming 47th Asean summit will revolve around three key areas: peace and stability, trade under pressure, and people-to-people ties.

“I think we’ll be talking a lot about what we’re observing in the region — how we make sure that we keep peace and stability,” he said.

“There’ll be a major focus around trade and investment, and how we continue to uphold the rules-based system when economies are under pressure, with challenging and volatile trading environments and dynamics.”

Despite being geographically distant from Southeast Asia, New Zealand’s economic future is deeply intertwined with Asean, New Zealand’s fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for one in four jobs in the country.

“As Asean continues to grow and the economies continue to grow, there’s just so much more opportunity for us to sell high-value products and services into the region,” Luxon said.

“But it’s also about opening up our market to Asean. It has to be a two-way, mutually respectful partnership.”

Luxon also highlighted the human side of diplomacy, calling for an expansion of educational exchanges, tourism, and people-to-people understanding.

“That’s what leads to more investment in capital and trade and all those things,” he said.

New Zealand will attend the 47th Asean Summit and Related Meetings in Kuala Lumpur from October 26 to 28.

The summit, considered the biggest event in the Asean annual calendar, will see heads of governments come together to discuss and shape the future of Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific, a global geopolitical and economic centre of gravity.