WELLINGTON – Diplomats like to remain neutral but Nanaia Mahuta let the veil slip a little when a winner was declared in the U.S.
election by tweeting a smiley-face emoji.Mahuta, the first indigenous Maori woman to be appointed New Zealand's foreign affairs minister, suppresses a real-life smile when asked about it. “Look, what I can say is that there were encouraging signs in those speeches,” she said in an interview with the The Associated Press.
She said the victory speech by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris was "inspirational to many women around the world.”Mahuta, 50, was a surprise pick for the role, despite being a respected performer in Parliament for almost half her life, since she was first elected in 1996 at age 26.