New Zealand and international personnel have been welcomed to Linton Military Camp with a pōwhiri, ahead of Exercise Tropic Twilight in Tonga Photo: NZDF
Soldiers from New Zealand and other places will soon deploy to Tonga to help local communities with various projects and help increase their resilience to natural disasters.
This is the second year in a row the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) has chosen to hold Exercise Tropic Twilight in Tonga.
This in order to provide the island kingdom with aid as it continues to recover from the impact of the 2022 eruption and tsunami.
Sixty New Zealand soldiers will be joined by 10 army personnel from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the US, the UK, Japan and New Caledonia.
New Zealand Army engineers will head to the island of Lifuka to help increase resilience to natural disasters, and a unit of Defence Health personnel will also be deployed to the island to hold community dental clinics.
New Zealand and international personnel have been welcomed to Linton Military Camp with a pōwhiri, ahead of Exercise Tropic Twilight in Tonga Photo: NZDF
In preparation for exercise, the personnel have been welcomed to Linton Military Camp with a pōwhiri.
During the pōwhiri, Officer Commanding 25 Engineer Support Squadron Major James Brosnan said this is about "supporting the Kingdom of Tonga, building disaster resilience, enhancing stability in the region and reiterating that we are all trusted partners within the Pacific".
"By ourselves, we wouldn't be able to achieve all the goals, so the participation of the other countries cannot be understated."
Over the course of seven weeks, the engineer troop will focus on renovations and upgrades to the Ha'ateiho Community Centre to ensure the community has a safe place to shelter during or after cyclones.
The troops will also makes repairs to the Koulo Meteorological Station and upgrade facilities at two local schools.
Personnel will leave for Lifuka later this month.
Meanwhile, Veterans' Affairs has moved to ensure children of veterans exposed to the risk of nuclear radiation are treated equally with more entitlements and support.
Nuclear radiation is a risk that New Zealand service people have been exposed to in Japan at the end of World War II, off Malden and Christmas Islands in the Pacific in the 1950s, and at Mururoa in French Polynesia while observing French nuclear tests in the 1970s.
