Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed he has secured facetime with King Charles III during his visit to London for the coronation.

He will also meet his UK counterpart Rishi Sunak at 10 Downing Street during the trip.

“Yes, I will be meeting with several members of the royal family, including... the King,” Hipkins said at today’s post-Cabinet press conference.

Hipkins said he would not provide any further details about the meeting until closer to the time.

The PM departs tonight with a New Zealand delegation to the United Kingdom for the coronation on May 6.

The delegation will include Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, New Zealand High Commissioner to the UK Phil Goff, Opposition leader Christopher Luxon, and Richie McCaw as a representative of the Order of New Zealand.

He will attend the ceremony in London along with a number of other government representatives and iwi leaders.

In London, Hipkins’ meeting with Sunak will be about trade, the war in Ukraine and activities in the Indo-Pacific region.

Trade would be a high priority while he was overseas, Hipkins said, citing the UK-NZ Free Trade Agreement.

Hipkins will also be convening a roundtable on climate change which will include the former British High Commissioner to NZ Laura Clarke, who is now the CEO of ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation.

Hipkins will also be visiting NZ Defence Force personnel who are training Ukrainians for the war. Hipkins will also have a conversation with the president of Ukraine this evening and will describe what support NZ might further provide.

Speaking on his travel for the coronation, Hipkins said it would be a significant international event given the King is our head of state.

“It’s a significant part of history.”

Hipkins indicated he could be having a meeting with King Charles, but would not be detailing any specifics until closer to the time.

Asked if he was a monarchist or a republican, Hipkins said he had already stated he was the latter, but said he would be only one vote when the country had the discussion.

Hipkins said he didn’t envisage having a discussion on whether New Zealand should become a republic if he won another term in Government.

He said it wasn’t a priority at the moment and considered it a distraction given the other factors impacting New Zealanders currently.

“I don’t particularly have any interest in pushing that debate on New Zealanders at the moment.”

‘Clearly, they’ve dropped the ball’

Speaking on the Kiwirail disruption today, Hipkins cited the statement issued earlier concerning a review of what happened.

The Government is launching a rapid review after a faulty piece of critical equipment led to major disruptions in Wellington’s rail network.

“It isn’t acceptable,” he said.

“Clearly, they’ve dropped the ball here.”

“Lack of funding isn’t an excuse,” he said.

He said if there was a constraint on resources, he would expect Kiwirail to take steps to address it before it became a problem.

Over several decades, the rail system had been run down, Hipkins said.

On the hostage situation of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens in West Papua, Hipkins said the Government remained committed to providing support to resolve the situation.

He wouldn’t comment on the specifics around negotiations, except to say that some information in the public arena was incorrect.

Hipkins yet to meet the King

Last year the King held a 10-minute meeting with former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the time of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. He has not yet met formally with Hipkins, one of 15 leaders of Commonwealth realm countries many of whom will attend the coronation.

Hipkins departs as Defence Minister Andrew Little today returned from a trip to Turkey, Europe and Jordan. Little attended Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli, a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany, and also visited New Zealand Defence Force troops in Jordan.

An announcement about more support for Ukraine is expected to be announced in the coming days.

Hipkins said a trip to Ukraine wasn’t on his schedule at this time.

He wouldn’t rule out going to Ukraine during his trip to the Nato meeting later this year, but expected that it was unlikely given how packed his schedule was.

Hipkins was also asked about a report by the Papua New Guinea Post-Courier overnight that he will be attending a Pacific leaders’ meeting on May 22, also attended by US President Joe Biden.

This follows a report by the Herald on Friday that officials were anticipating an invitation to the meeting.

Biden will be the first sitting US president to visit the Pacific island nation. taking place en route from the G7 meeting in Japan to Australia, as the US continues to ramp up its diplomatic push in the Pacific.

Fourteen Pacific leaders will also meet in Port Moresby on May 22 with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Asked whether Hipkins had invited the US President to Wellington during his visit to Australia, Hipkins said he wasn’t aware whether the invitation was offered by Ardern.

He noted that if a US President wanted to go somewhere, it was likely they would do so.

“You don’t just drop invitations willy-nilly out of nowhere”.

The US has repeatedly insisted that its renewed interest in the region is not driven by a desire to push back against China’s influence, but because it wants to contribute to stability in the region while helping Pacific Island nations tackle serious threats such as climate change and illegal fishing.

Biden’s visit would also come against the heightened geo-strategic competition between Washington and Beijing across the region. While the US has insisted its renewed interest is driven by a desire to help Pacific Island nations tackle serious threats such as climate change and illegal fishing - the reality is the jockeying with China is an underlying driving force.

Hipkins has also announced that he has accepted an invitation to attend a major Nato summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 11 and 12.

That summit will involve the Nato leaders and a handful of representatives from non-Nato countries, including New Zealand, Australia, Japan and South Korea - dubbed the Asia Pacific 4. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to attend.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese initially turned down the invitation but has since changed his mind and will attend also.

Hipkins’ latest overseas travel was just over a week ago to Australia, where a historic pathway to citizenship for New Zealanders in Australia was announced.

It was his second visit as Prime Minister after a day trip to Canberra earlier this year.