The Tongan Prime Minister ʻAkilisi Pohiva has denounced New Zealand's espionage activities as a "breach of trust." He also expressed concerns about similar surveillance activities carried out by China. The Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele has by contrast dismissed allegations of New Zealand espionage against Samoa, commenting that "it would be far fetched to think that a spy agency in any country would waste their resources doing that kind of thing to Samoa." In response to these disclosures, Prime Minister John Key issued a statement on 5 March 2015 saying that he would "neither confirm nor deny" whether New Zealand's spy agencies were spying on the South Pacific. Key had earlier acknowledged that New Zealand was a member of the Five Eyes club, which included the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, during a speech calling for New Zealand to deploy troops to Iraq to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.