New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a meeting in London with fellow Five Eyes leaders agreed that the use of chemical weapons could not be tolerated, but would not say whether she expected further action to be taken over the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
The high-powered meeting was called by British Prime Minister Theresa May while all the leaders were in London for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which opens on Thursday.
Ardern has had a private meeting with May, as well as Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Clarence House. She will meet with the Queen on Thursday.
The leaders were expected to canvas issues from the use of nerve agent in Salisbury, chemical weapons in Syria and a new surge of cyber attacks which some leaders are blaming on Russia.
Speaking to media afterwards on Wednesday (local time), Ardern said the leaders had agreed to focus on enforcing an international rule-based order.
"And that we cannot allow the use of chemical weapons to go unanswered. The rules-based order as it relates to a range of issues was the centre of our discussion."
As well as May and Ardern, Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australia's Malcolm Turnbull were at the meeting - four of the leaders of the five countries in the so-called "Five Eyes" intelligence sharing group. The United States was not there.
Asked if they had discussed any further action either against Syria or the possibility of retaliation from Russia, Ardern said she would not reveal any details.
On the possibility of retaliation she said it was a concern. "We would all want to see a return back to the table, through the United Nations. In this case, the veto power stopped that but from here you can see a mood from all of those involved that we return to that order."
Of the Five Eyes partners, Ardern is the only one that has not gone so far as to say she supported the missile strikes by the US, the United Kingdom and France, but said she accepted there were few options and the use of chemical weapons "could not go unchallenged".
She said that stance had not changed after the meeting. New Zealand had also made a statement at the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons condemning the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
"I think that statement will be welcomed."
On the same day the news came through that UN weapons inspectors in Syria had turned back from Douma after hearing firearms and an explosion.
Ardern went straight to the Five Eyes meeting at the National Cyber Security Centre from Downing Street where she had been met May beforehand for one-on-one talks.
She said May had not sought her support for any particular statement of declaration during the Commonwealth leaders meeting, either on the nerve gas attack in Salisbury or other issues.
"I am aware of some talk of language around chemical weapons for this meeting, I am yet to see the detail on that. But I'm sure there will be broad support for strong statements against the use of chemical weapons."
ON CYBER ATTACKS AFFECTING NEW ZEALAND:
The meeting had also coincided with fresh accusations of cyber attacks by Russia on government agencies, infrastructure and private corporations.
Asked how much of a danger Russia was to New Zealand's security over cyber attacks, Ardern said in the past year there were about 400 cyber attacks or threats and of those 120 could be attributed to state actors - ranging from Russia to North Korea.
"There's a range of those and New Zealand is not immune to that. There's no doubt Russia has been a part of that."
She said New Zealand had to be agile enough to respond and the cyber security agencies had been able to take preventative action.
"We do need to make sure we continue to be vigilant because prevention will always prevent some of that harm."
