Institute notes: the national office and branch activities.

A successful seminar was held on 21-22 February on the major foreign policy issues facing New Zealand. It attracted 205 participants--one of the highest attendance levels in the NZIIA's history. The proceedings will be published in mid-year. (The edited text of the opening address by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rt Hon Winston Peters, is to be found elsewhere in this issue.)

The Director of the University Centre for International Humanitarian Law in Geneva, Professor Louisa Doswald-Beck, addressed a joint New Zealand Red Cross/NZIIA meeting at Victoria University of Wellington on 27 February on 'Customary International Humanitarian Law" Sixty people attended.

On 6 March the NZIIA co-hosted with the Centre for Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury an address by Mrs Mariaan Boel, the EU Commissioner of Agriculture and Rural Development. This event was held in Wellington with 110 in attendance.

On 27 March 2006 90 people attended a seminar in Wellington to consider the policy setting of the on-going debate on climate change and New Zealand commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. Prof Campbell Maclachlan chaired a discussion of the relevant multilateral texts led by Scott Gallacher (Minter Ellison) and Murray Ward (formerly of the Climate Change Office). Another panel discussion focused on the global policy settings for climate change. The panellists were HE Beat Nobs (Ambassador of Switzerland) and Dr David Wratt (NIWA). A third panel featured key New Zealand stakeholder groups, including the business perspective and non-governmental organisation viewpoints from Phil O'Reilly (Business New Zealand), Jacon Haronga (Federated Farmers), Kerry Marshall (Fonterra) and Catherine Beard (Greenhouse Policy Coalition). The final session examined the interests of future generations: Aroha Mead (Maori perspective), Charles Finny (Wellington Chamber of Commerce) and Hon Peter Neilson (Business Council for Sustainable Development). Peter Cozens, of the Centre for Strategic Studies, gave the closing summation.

On 31 March, in association with the New Zealand European Union Centres Network, the NZIIA staged a panel discussion on 'European Union/New Zealand Development Aid Policy in the Pacific' at Victoria University of Wellington. The panellists were Stefano...