10 Apr 2007

New Zealand Defence Minister praises RAMSI help to disaster relief

10:01 am on 10 April 2007

The New Zealand defence minister, Phil Goff, says the relief effort to help the victims of the Solomon Islands earthquake and tsunami may improve co-operation between the Solomons government and the Regional Assistance Mission , RAMSI.

The role of RAMSI has been under review under the auspices of the Pacific Islands Forum following calls by the Solomons prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare.

Mr Goff says the RAMSI presence helped respond to the disaster.

"Having those people on the ground and the RAMSI effort as a whole has been really impressive and we are hoping the working together of RAMSI and the Solomon Island government is going to also have the spin-off effect of improving relationships between those two in the overall work that the two are conducting together."

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