Ambassador to the UK Recalled After Comparing Trump’s Ukraine War Strategy to Appeasement of Nazi Germany
New Zealand has dismissed its ambassador to the United Kingdom following the diplomat’s public criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump’s understanding of the events that led to World War II.
On Thursday, the office of New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters stated that High Commissioner to the UK Phil Goff’s position had become “untenable” after his comments during a panel discussion in London.
“His remarks do not represent the views of the New Zealand government and have made his position as high commissioner to London untenable,” a spokesperson said.
The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it was in discussions with Goff about his return home and declined to comment further.
During a Chatham House event on Wednesday, which also featured Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, Goff drew a parallel between Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine and the 1938 Munich Agreement, which allowed Nazi Germany to annex parts of Czechoslovakia.
“I was re-reading Churchill’s speech to the House of Commons in 1938 after the Munich Agreement, and he turned to Chamberlain and said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war,’” Goff said during a Q&A session, referencing former UK Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain.
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office. But do you think he really understands history?”
Valtonen, without directly addressing Goff’s question, remarked that Churchill had made many “timeless statements.”
On X (formerly Twitter), former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark criticized the decision to remove Goff, calling the rationale a “very thin excuse.”
Clark, who led New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, noted that she had heard similar comparisons made during last month’s Munich Security Conference in Germany.
Goff has not yet responded to requests for comment via his X account.
Before his appointment as New Zealand’s top diplomat to the UK in 2023, Goff held several ministerial roles, including foreign affairs, and served two terms as the mayor of Auckland.
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