‘Increasingly Complex’ Threats Facing Pacific Nations: NZ Defence Ministry

Mortar Firing during Ex Cartwheel in Fiji. The tactical field training exercise, Exercise CARTWHEEL, was a US and Fiji-led multinational exercise conducted in the Nausori Highlands in Fiji. The exercise involved defence personnel from the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF), United States Army Pacific (USARPAC), British Army and Australian Defence Force (ADF). 55 combat soldiers from 1st (NZ) Brigade in Linton and Burnham participated in the Exercise to enhance capability in both urban and jungle environments. Training also included demonstrations of sustained fire machine guns, section attacks and ambushes, reacting to enemy indirect firing and ethical decision-making scenarios. A light infantry Platoon from Delta Company, 2/1 RNZIR also conducted reconnaissance operations, section and platoon harbours drills, survival and tracking training.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Defence has warned in its latest Statement of Intent that the country faces “increasing and compounding” threats to its national security.

In a blunt assessment of the current situation, the Ministry has warned of “increasingly complex and challenging threats to its security.

“These challenges are also faced by Australia, the Pacific, and other states that share our interests.

“The use, and threat of use, of military power is increasingly shaping states’ interactions. We face an increasing risk of conflict directly affecting New Zealand’s national security.”

New Zealand and its allies had been able to rely on a strategic environment characterised by an international rules-based system “that reflects our values and supports our interests,” the Ministry said.

This contributed to stability and enabled collective action across a range of issues.

However, in recent years, growing strategic competition has challenged the effectiveness of this system.

“Some states are acting in ways counter to recognised international rules and norms and advancing competing visions for regional and global orders that are at odds with New Zealand’s values and interests,” the report cautions.

NZ Army's 1BDE soldiers tested their combat skills in the Waiouru Training Area during Exercise Valkyrie Rising, a large-scale training exercise based around a surprise conflict scenario. Courtesy NZ Defence Force.

It singles out Beijing as posing a particular threat, saying, “China’s assertive pursuit of its strategic objectives is the major driver for the new era of strategic competition among states, both globally and particularly in the Indo-Pacific.”

It also highlights climate change as a threat, calling it “a paramount global challenge, directly affecting national and regional security, and exacerbating strategic competition and other security threats.

The Ministry says the government expects it to “contribute to global security and the reinforcement of the existing international rules-based system.”

It predicts that the Defence Force must be deployed more often and in a broader range of environments.

“In the strategic outlook now confronting New Zealand, the Defence Force will be called upon more often, and personnel must be equipped and trained for a range of operations,” it says.

Speaking at an event organised by Diplosphere in Wellington this morning, Minister of Defence Judith Collins used the analogy: “When two elephants fight, little ants can get squashed.”

She added that “China is a very good friend to us, we have a lot of cooperation around science as well as the economic issues and climate change in particular. We also have a very good friend in the United States, so we are very careful with what we do, with what we say, and how we operate. But we are also nobody’s fools.”

The minister announced the new chiefs of the Navy, Army, and Air Force: Commodore Garin Golding, Brigadier Rose King, and Air Vice-Marshal Darryn Webb, respectively. King is the first woman to be appointed Chief of the Army.