Luxon starts Europe trip remembering NZ's past WWI sacrifice

Christopher Luxon's Europe trip has opened with the Prime Minister paying tribute to New Zealanders who served in World War I in Belgium's historic Ypres.

Luxon gave a reading of the Ode of Remembrance and laid a wreath as part of the Last Post ceremony under the Menin Gate.

He said listening to the rousing sound of bagpipers made him think of two things.

"For New Zealand, this is really significant because we lost almost 5,000 of our young people here — more than what we lost in Gallipoli — so it's really special for me to be able to be here tonight," the Prime Minister said.

"And also tomorrow, to actually pay our respects to the fallen that have come before us and served New Zealand so well."

"Standing up for values that we see again with a European war happening in this day and age, 110 years later, that has some of the same characteristics — so it's a real pleasure to be here, a real honour to be here, and I thought it was a very moving ceremony."

Luxon said the comparison between the two conflicts, a century apart, was front of mind — both Kiwi defence efforts in World War I and its current support for Ukraine.

The second thought on his mind was his personal connection to WWI, with his great-grandfather having served.

"I’ve read his letters home and in fact just last weekend I was in South Canterbury talking to a lot of family relatives about the experience as well, looking at different family history and photos," he said.

"It was pretty special to be here on a personal level but also representing New Zealand."

Luxon acknowledged the enthusiasm of the younger generations of Ypres, who he said continue to "take it seriously" and pay tribute to the sacrifice of other countries in WWI.

The Menin Gate event commemorates more than 54,000 soldiers from Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and the UK who died in the region but have no known grave.

Only the names of 84 New Zealanders who served in British or other Commonwealth forces are marked on the gate, with soldiers from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force commemorated closer to where they were killed in battle.

The Last Post ceremony has taken place in Ypres every night since 1928, with the event only stopping during Germany’s occupation in World War II.

Speaking about his time in Ypres, Brussels and the Netherlands over the next five days, Luxon said the trip was about strengthening economic and security ties with European countries and the Indo-Pacific Four — the group of NATO partners in the region that includes Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

This is the fourth consecutive year New Zealand has been invited to attend the annual NATO summit.

"It's really important that we advocate for the rules-based system, that we reaffirm that from a trading point of view but from a security, defence point of view… in a volatile, complex world prosperity and security go together, they're inextricably linked and so you need to be able to have conversations on both sides of that coin."

Only member countries will take part in the main meeting on Wednesday, where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is expected to propose that countries commit to spending 5% of GDP on core defence and defence-related costs such as infrastructure.

Luxon will take part in other engagements during the two-day event, including bilateral talks with other leaders.

He will also meet with European Commission leaders before the NATO summit.