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Issue Number 32, October 2009
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Kapatiran Issue
No. 32, October 2009
UPDATE
- Murray Horton
Independently of each other, both PSNA and Maire wrote to
the NZ government in 2009 for up to date details on the
state of the NZ/Philippines military relationship. PSNA
received a reply from the Minister of Defence detailing
such links as took place in 2008 & 09, namely
training programmes run by the NZ military in the
Philippines; Philippine military personnel coming to NZ
for training; and one NZ aircraft demonstration flight
while in transit through the Philippines (in addition to
participation in the ASEAN exercise). Maire received a
reply from the Chief of Defence Force, detailing those
links spanning the decade 1999-2009, including a three
page table summarising the Mutual Assistance Programme
for that decade. There is nothing on the scale of the
1980s’ NZ military activities in the Philippines but
that is because things there are now different, namely
that the huge US bases that the NZ military had access to
are gone. But a close eye needs to be kept on the
relationship between the NZ and Philippine militaries,
including in the context of exercises such as the recent
ASEAN one.
After PSNA wrote its first letter to the Minister, we
received information from a Philippine source of a
possible Status of Visiting Forces Agreement being
negotiated between New Zealand and the Philippines
(Australia is negotiating one at the moment). So we wrote
again to the Minister of Defence and received a second
reply (17/8/09), saying: “I can advise that there
are currently no negotiations under way (for such an
Agreement). The possibility was discussed some years ago
but it has not been pursued by either Philippines or New
Zealand”. We also asked the Minister if the NZ
Special Air Service (which is currently being redeployed
to Afghanistan) had ever been deployed in the
Philippines, either in combat or on exercises. He
replied: “The NZSAS has never been deployed in the
Philippines for combat operations. In the 1970s and early
1980s the NZSAS participated in special forces exercises
with the United States and Philippines at the US Naval
Base in Subic Bay (see Maire’s article, above, for
details). The NZSAS has not participated in any exercise
in the Philippines since that time”. #
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