New Zealand is courting the United States to return as a major donor and diplomatic powerhouse in the Pacific after years of disinterest in the region from American administrations.
The push will ramp up in coming months and take flight at the beefed-up Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders meeting in Palau this August.
Winston Peters, New Zealand's foreign minister, is eyeing bilateral talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of the summit and believes his advocacy can catch the ear of President Donald Trump.
"We are working on what you might call linkages to get in his mental space on this issue," Mr Peters says.
He is a long-running advocate for Pacific development and has urged the US to invest in the blue continent on both strategic and humanitarian grounds.
"We want to tell them why it's critically important and how in their terms 'minimalist funding', they can do so much in their front yard," he says.
"Our job is to remind them that's your front yard, just like ours."
To this end, the 80-year-old is delighted this year's PIF meeting will again allow greater powers to attend.
Last year's summit, hosted by China-friendly Solomon Islands, closed ranks to all non-members including the US, China, Japan, the UK and France.
This was widely interpreted as a block to delegates from Taiwan at Beijing's insistence, with the effect of barring the biggest donors to the underdeveloped region.
Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr has confirmed the return of these "dialogue partner" nations in 2026, with New Zealand and Australia cheerleading the shift.
"It's critical because in the end, we need partners," Mr Peters says.
"They had a right to be there (in Solomon Islands last year) and that right was interfered with by outsiders telling the insiders at the forum what they should be doing.
"We're not accepting that. So this is going to happen in Palau this year; they're all back and they'll back in New Zealand when we hold the forum next year."
In the meantime, Mr Peters is privately scheming to engage the Trump administration, which has radically overhauled US foreign policy.
Mr Trump and Mr Rubio have castigated old allies in Europe and disbanded USAID, which pumped tens of billions in foreign aid into poorer nations, largely in Africa and Asia.
Pacific island nations were hurt by the withdrawal but not to the extent of other nations given US engagement was already low.
Mr Peters hopes to book a meeting with Mr Rubio "very shortly", when he would argue for Pacific prominence in its foreign policy reconfiguration.
"We are going to go and talk about the relevancy of them needing to be part and parcel of the blue continent and not repeat what they were accused of by a famous man called General Douglas MacArthur," he says, referring to the storied WWII US army chief.
"He says, 'you are Euro-centric, you're not facing and concentrating on your on your own area'. MacArthur was saying that then and we're saying it again."
Alongside his chase for deeper US regional ties, Mr Peters is also embracing the new-era politics of Trump's Republican party for his own political force: New Zealand First.
His populist party has adopted similar slogans and policies to the MAGA movement, including an embrace of fossil fuels, anti-immigrant rhetoric, a "war on woke" and a rollback of transgender rights.
This alignment has won Mr Peters friends in the Republican administration but also highlights tensions between Mr Peters' populist politics and his role as New Zealand's top diplomat.
As he rails against "globalists", Mr Peters is resisting calls to defund or disband parts of the UN.
New Zealand has not joined Mr Trump's Board of Peace but nor has it ruled out ever joining.
"We said we'll look at it but we're not joining now at the moment," Mr Peters says.
"There's one thing I do know, and this is essence of conservatism: it is far easier to try and build what you've already got, or reform what you've already got, than to start something new," he says on the UN.
Mr Peters is leading a multi-partisan political and business delegation to Latin America beginning this weekend.
