Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade deputy secretary multilateral and legal affairs group Bernadette Cavanagh made that point during an opening address at the University of Otago’s 52nd annual Foreign Policy School yesterday.
About 150 people are expected to attend the three-day school, which is devoted to "Open and Closed Borders: The Geopolitics of Migration", and is being held at St Margaret’s College.
Ms Cavanagh said New Zealand had 57 diplomatic missions in 50 countries and planned to open further new embassies, including in the Republic of Ireland and Colombia.
She gave an optimistic view, emphasising there were emerging opportunities for effective dialogue and positive developments, despite significant challenges.
New Zealand was due to host the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum (Apec) in Auckland in 2021.
The ministry was "keenly focused on trying to improve" New Zealand’s overseas profile, by building new relationships, but "we won’t forget our old partners", such as Australia, she said.
New Zealand would have to deal with many powerful trends including the rise of "non-state actors", climate change, resource constraints and "more people, both old and young". All of these would influence aspects of migration patterns.
One of the school’s three co-directors, Associate Prof Jackie Leckie, thanked Ms Cavanagh for her wide-ranging talk.
The expected heavy impact of climate change is one of the factors expected to come into the spotlight during the rest of the school, including an estimate that by 2050, up to 200 million people could be forced to leave their homes because of climate change.