National Office and branch activities.

• Position: INSTITUTE NOTES

On 20 April an online panel event, 'War in Ukraine: Responding to the Humanitarian Crisis', was held, hosted and moderated by NZIIA Board member Serena Kelly. The panellists were Lisette Reymer (Newshub), Prof Dorota Heidrich (University of Warsaw) and Vivienne Euini (New Zealand Red Cross).

On 17 May the NZIIA joined the University of Canterbury, the EU Delegation to New Zealand, the National Centre for Research on Europe and the New Zealand European Union Centres Network to stage the 2022 Europa Lecture. Gabriele Visentin, the European Union's special envoy for the Indo-Pacific, delivered the lecture on the topic 'The EU Indo-Pacific Strategy'.

On 20 June British high commissioner to New Zealand, HE Laura Clark OBE, gave her valedictory address to a meeting at Parliament hosted by the speaker, Rt Hon Trevor Mallard.

The NZIIA was sad to learn of the death, on 14 July, of life member Ann Trotter ONZM. An obituary is included elsewhere in this issue.

Former diplomat Paul Cotton CVO, QSO, an occasional contributor to the NZIR over the years, died in Sydney on 16 July.

The NZIR's corresponding editor, Stephen Hoadley, is one of 32 New Zealanders recently banned from visiting the Russian Federation.

Auckland

The following meetings were held:

8 Jun Dr Hamish McDougall (NZIIA director) and Dr Felicity Barnes (History Department, Auckland University), 'New Zealand, Britain and the European Community: End of a Long-Distance Relationship?' 9 Jul Jeremy Goldkorn (China media commentator and entrepreneur) and Alistair Crozier (executive director of the New Zealand China Council), 'The Future of New Zealand's Relationship with China'. Christchurch

The branch held its AGM on 19 May. The following officers were elected:

Chair--Sandeep Sharma

Treasurer--Paul Grainger

Secretary--Courtney Murray

Committee--Sally Carlton, Adam Griffin, Toby Heale, Serena Kelly, Sareth Kumaresan, Xiyin Liu, Alexander Malkov, John Richardson, Xiwen Wang.

After the meeting, Jeremy Moses, of the University of Canterbury's Department of Political Science and International Relations, gave a presentation on 'New Zealand and the Lethal Autonomous Weapons Debate'.

The following meetings were held:

4 Apr Dr Hamish McDougall (NZIIA director), 'Shock and Abandonment? New Zealand, Britain and European Community enlargement, 1960-1985' (Zoom). 28 Apr Dr Amy Fletcher (a freelance writer and independent scholar based in the United States), 'Lethal Autonomous Weapons and Future Warfare'. 4...