29 Aug 2012

NZ Defence Force to co-host next Exercise Pacific Partnership

9:14 pm on 29 August 2012

For the first time the New Zealand Defence Force is to co-host next year's Exercise Pacific Partnership under which humanitarian support is offered around the region.

The defence forces of Australia, France, the United States and Japan are also involved.

The exercise will see medical and dental teams provide services in Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Samoa and the Marshall Islands.

New Zealand will also send Navy divers and Army engineers, to help with what the Defence Force calls the critical disposal of World War II war remnants in Tarawa in Kiribati.