New Zealand Sacks UK Ambassador After Trump WWII Comments
New Zealand has terminated the appointment of its High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Phil Goff, after he publicly questioned United States President Donald Trump’s understanding of the events leading up to World War II, Al Jazeera reports.
The decision, announced by the office of New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters on Thursday, deemed Goff’s position “untenable” following his remarks made during a panel discussion in London.
“I was re-reading Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and he turned to Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war,'” Goff said during a Q&A session at a Chatham House event on Wednesday, referring to former UK Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain.
He was drawing a comparison between Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine and the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia. The event also featured Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it is in discussions with Goff regarding his return home and has declined to provide further comment.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Foreign Minister Peters described the decision as necessary but “seriously disappointing.”
Before being appointed High Commissioner to the UK in 2023, Goff held several ministerial portfolios, including foreign affairs, and served two terms as the mayor of Auckland.
