‘No guarantee of military commitment’
PA Machap Bahru New Zealand can no longer guarantee its level of military commitment to South-East Asia, the Minister of Defence, Mr Tizard, said in Malaysia. He said the likelihood of New Zealand Armed Forces becoming involved in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Namibia and Cambodia meant a guaranteed level of commitment could not be made. New Zealand already had Armed Forces personnel in Pakistan and Iran. “There are increasing commitments being made on a static New Zealand force,” he said while visiting the combined New Zealand-Malaysia Taiaha Tombak exercise at the week-end. “We have kept our defence effort; we want to make it more effective by having better equipment. “But at the same time we’ve got to look at expanded peace-keeping forces and the possibility of small localised action in the Pacific. “We can’t survive that if we’ve got our active battalion tied here in Singapore.” With New Zealand’s reputation in international peace-keeping it seemed
likely further requests for help would be made. He said he told the Malaysian Deputy Defence Minister, Dato Abang Abu Baker, that if New Zealand was committed to a ground force in Cambodia, a battalion strength force could not be promised to future exercises. New Zealand was committed to the five-power defence agreement with Britain, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia and this could just as easily be carried out by sending personnel from New Zealand. New Zealand no longer saw the need for a battalion to be based in Singapore. He said New Zealand still wanted to exercise regularly in Malaysia. About 25 Armed Forces personnel will remain in Singapore after the base closes at the end of the year, primarily to co-ordi-nate future exercises in the region. The Government’s commitment to F.T.D.A. meant it had to have an Armed Force with frigate and strike aircraft capability. Equipment purchases will soon be 25 per cent of the total defence budget, up from 15 per cent, he said.
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Press, 26 June 1989, Page 8
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327‘No guarantee of military commitment’ Press, 26 June 1989, Page 8
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