Oscar McGuire and Ben Clayton (both 16) are two of four New Zealand secondary school pupils selected to represent the nation at what is one of the largest secondary school events in Australia.
Ben said it was the first time the competition organisers had invited New Zealand to send teams, and the duo had been told the decision was not appreciated by some of their Australian counterparts.
''The fact that we will have two teams there means that they [Australian schools] will lose places for two of their teams. We've been told that they're not looking forward to our reception.''
The duo said they were looking forward to putting their diplomacy skills into action and winning over their fellow competitors in Sydney in December.
The competition is a simulation of the United Nations Security Council in which teams represent a country and are marked on their diplomacy, research, speaking and negotiation skills.
The competition is named after Australian politician, diplomat and jurist Dr H.V. Evatt.
Oscar and Ben were selected through a nationwide application process, which included a short-answer response, an interview and an essay.
Both are members of the Otago regional debating development squad and have been Otago representatives in other national United Nations events.
Ben won an Embassy scholarship in July and spent a day as an intern with the Polish embassy in Wellington.
Oscar was selected for a Pacific project to Samoa and Australia in July, and attended the Australian National Youth Conference in Brisbane.
''We're both very excited about the Evatt competition,'' Ben said.
''We're very fortunate that we got put in the same team because we're good friends and we do debating together.
''We've worked together for a long time and we work well together.''
