The commander of the US military in the Pacific yesterday said he wants to expand and bolster its ties with New Zealand.
The visit to Wellington by US Indo-Pacific Command Commander Admiral John Aquilino came as the US seeks to increase its presence in the region amid deep concerns over China’s growing ambitions in the Pacific.
They include most recently the Solomon Islands, where the US and several Pacific nations expressed deep concern about a security pact Honiara signed with Beijing in April, which many fear could result in a military buildup in the region.
Photo: AP
Aquilino was greeted with a traditional Maori welcome ceremony and laid a wreath at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. He spoke briefly to media ahead of meetings with top New Zealand defense force and government officials.
“Our partnership runs very deep,” Aquilino said. “We are doing many things together to continue to ensure peace and prosperity for both of our nations and for all the nations in the region.”
Aquilino said he wanted to identify new areas where the US could work with New Zealand, adding that the leadership of Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific was “critically important.”
“The one thing you will never hear out of me is big or small. This is a partnership,” Aquilino said. “All nations deliver those things that they can deliver.”
He said the US understood the security implications of climate change in Pacific island nations, including for food security and water security, and the importance for island nations to be able to fish in exclusive zones.
“The United States has been a Pacific nation our entire life. We will continue to operate in the Pacific no matter what else you might hear,” Aquilino said.
New Zealand Defence Force Chief Air Marshal Kevin Short said the relationship with the US had been strong for decades, and it regularly interacts with US forces so they can both operate better in the region.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS