New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern has shot down a suggestion that she arranged a meeting with her Finnish counterpart just because the pair are “similar in age”.

Finland’s Sanna Marin arrived in New Zealand this week for her first visit to the country, ahead of a trip across the Tasman to Australia.

At a media briefing on Wednesday, Ms Ardern, 42, visibly bristled when a male radio journalist asked the reason for the talks with the 37-year-old Ms Marin.

“A lot of people will be wondering are you two meeting just because you’re similar in age and got a lot of common stuff there,” he said.

Ms Ardern interrupted to query if “anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because they were of similar age”.

Former US President Barack Obama and former NZ PM John Key were born within days of each other in 1961.

“Because two women meet, it is not simply because of their gender,” Ms Ardern said.

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She went on to list the two nations’ trade relations (Finland reportedly exports $122 million in goods to New Zealand every year).

“Our meeting today is a chance… [to] really leverage the economic opportunities between our two countries,” she said.

“It’s our job to further it, regardless of our gender.”

Ms Marin agreed. The pair met “because we are prime ministers”, she said.

Ms Ardern said she also particularly valued the insight of Ms Marin into the impacts of Russia’s illegal invasion on Ukraine, as Finland shares a border with Russia.

“We discussed our strong commitment to supporting Ukraine as the war continues. The conflict I’m very aware is literally on Finland’s doorstep,” she said.

Ms Marin said the deteriorating geopolitical environment meant “we need to make sure that democratic countries are working together even more closely”.

“We have to make sure that we have the trading routes, that we have cooperation also in the international fora that we need in the future even more so because we are also seeing the pushback of human rights,” she said.

“We are seeing authoritarian countries having their own ideologists in place and the situation is getting more severe.”

New Zealand hopes to bolster trade with the EU after agreeing a free trade agreement in June.

Australia is also negotiating a similar deal but is yet to reach agreement.

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Ms Marin welcomed the chance to deepen trade with democracies.

“I really worry about the dependencies that we have right now on authoritarian countries when it comes to new technologies, the digital infrastructure in our societies,” she said.

“[We have to] make sure that we are not building the same traps when it comes to new technologies and digital solutions that we have right now in Europe when it comes to energy from Russia.”

Her comments are most likely a reference to both Russia, but also China, New Zealand’s biggest trading partner.

Ms Marin is perhaps best recognised outside Finland as a “party PM”. Earlier this year, she took a drug test (which was negative) after leaked videos show her dancing with friends: Normal activities for a woman her age, but not necessarily associated with high office.

On Wednesday, she rebuked a journalist for asking whether she had accepted the mantle, saying “I don’t focus on it”.

“I focus on other issues … the global pandemic. There’s war now in Europe. The energy crisis. Perhaps an economic crisis,” she said.

“If the media wants to focus on [my behaviour] I don’t have anything to say. You are free to discuss and write what you want but I’m focusing on the issues.”

Ms Ardern backed Ms Marin, telling the journalist “I think [your] readers probably would be focused on the issues as well”.

Ms Marin flies from NZ to Australia to meet Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday.

-with AAP