At the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of New Zealand Margaret Wilson, Chairman of Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Wu Bangguo arrived in Wellington by a special plane on May 25, 2005 for a three-day official goodwill visit to New Zealand.

The special plane carrying Wu landed at the airport of Wellington at 6:30 pm on May 25 local time. Prime Minister Helen Clark and other senior officials of New Zealand waited at the accommodation ladder of the plane to greet him. Chairman Wu and his wife Zhang Ruizhen went down the ladder to shake hands with Prime Minister Clark. Clark expressed warm welcome to Chairman Wu's visit and the a staff member of the Chinese Embassy to New Zealand presented flowers to Wu and his wife.

In a written statement delivered at the airport, Wu said New Zealand, an important country in the Asia-Pacific region with rich resources, a strong economy and a stable society, plays an increasingly important role in international and regional affairs. It is the homeland of Rewi Alley, an old friend for China, and the Chinese people always bear friendly sentiments to New Zealand. The past 33 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries has witnessed sound development of bilateral relations which has brought tangible benefits to the two peoples and made positive contributions to peace and development in the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large. His current visit was aimed to push forward the existing friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries.

Wu said during his visit he will hold meetings or talks with New Zealand leaders for in-depth exchanges of views on deepening the bilateral comprehensive cooperative ties and on international and regional issues of common interest. He will also meet with friends from various communities to boost friendship between the two peoples. With the warm and thoughtful arrangement of the host, he believed his visit will round up with great success.

Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Re Di and other members of the delegation arrived by the same plane. Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Chen Mingming and representatives of staff members of the Chinese Embassy to New Zealand, local overseas Chinese and Chinese-funded enterprises also went to the airport to meet Chairman Wu.

Wu left Canberra on the morning of May 25 after concluding his successful visit to Australia. President Paul Calvert of the Senate of the Australian Federal Parliament and his wife, Representative of the Prime Minister McFarland and Australian Ambassador to China Alan Thomas as well as Chinese Ambassador to Australia Fu Ying went to the airport to see Chairman WU and his delegation off.

New Zealand is the third leg of Wu's four-nation Asia-Pacific tour, which will also take him to Malaysia.