The New Zealand Ardern states that the return of the flight to China will not be a red flag

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – An Air New Zealand flight to Shanghai has been turned back for an "administrative problem" and the incident has no political impact on relations with China, announced On Monday, New Zealand premier Jacinda Ardern.

The flight, with about 270 pbadengers, left Auckland shortly before midnight Saturday, but took several hours and landed in New Zealand Sunday morning, the national carrier, partly owned by the government, said.

"I think it's important to be very clear and not to confuse the administrative and regulatory issues with those concerning the relationship," Ardern said at a weekly press conference.

"It was really an administrative problem," she added. "Aircraft on arrival are expected to be registered, that the flight in question has not satisfied the administrative requirements."

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet commented.

Ardern's remarks come after politicians and badysts questioned whether the incident highlighted wider issues related to New Zealand's ties with its main trading partner.

"We need to know what happened here. Is this part of the continuing deterioration of relations between this New Zealand government and China? "Sunday, the opposition leader, Simon Bridges National Party, on the social network Twitter.

In November, the New Zealand intelligence agency rejected the first request from the telecommunications industry to use Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei's equipment in its future 5G mobile network, citing national security concerns.

This follows a defense policy statement in July, in which New Zealand said China's growing influence in the South Pacific could undermine regional stability and evoked tensions in the controversial South China Sea. , the origin of the complaint of China.

"Relationships are currently very sensitive," said David Capie, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

"On a range of issues with China, this government has indicated that it is taking a different stance from its predecessor, so I think people are waiting to see if and how Beijing will respond."

The rescheduled flight landed in Shanghai on Monday, according to data from the FlightAware flight tracking website.