Christopher Luxon has arrived in Washington, D.C., for his first political visit to the United States. He will spend three days meeting US and European leaders and attending the NATO summit.
The US capital is under high security, with many streets closed for the motorcades of various world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
On Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Luxon visited Capitol Hill. He met with Republican representative Michael McCaul and Democrat representative Gregory Meeks, who are key members of the House Foreign Relations Committee.
Traffic was heavy, so the New Zealand media delegation missed the start of these meetings. Luxon and his team moved quickly through the city in a motorcade.
Later, Luxon met with Democrat Ben Cardin and Republican Jim Risch from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He also had lunch with Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff from Georgia. Ossoff shared that he had visited New Zealand and enjoyed his trip.
Luxon was pleased with his meetings, giving a thumbs-up to the media and saying everything was going well. He and Ossoff discussed important issues for the US-New Zealand relationship.
