New US ambassador to New Zealand seeks to work with China

By NICK PERRY
Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The new U.S. ambassador to New Zealand says he wants to find areas of common ground with China in a region where tensions often run high. Tom Udall, a former U.S. senator from New Mexico, held his first press conference in his new role Thursday after presenting his credentials a day earlier. Udall says he’s been good friends with U.S. President Joe Biden since first interning for him in 1973. Udall replaces another former U.S. senator, Scott Brown, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. Udall, who is 73, said he’d never visited New Zealand before his recent arrival but was working on learning the Indigenous Maori language.