Judith Collins: Defence Minister on the NZ Defence Force's deployment in South Korea

The Government says sending troops to South Korea is good for their training.  

New Zealand is sending 41 Defence Force personnel as part of the United Nations Command. 

Defence Minister Judith Collins says they are mostly younger, less experienced members. 

She told Mike Hosking that it's a good chance for those with a couple of years' service to work with other nations. 

Collins says we're one of several other countries involved, so it's good for them to understand how we work with other nations. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boost from our Defense Force into Korea. We're sending forty
one of our personnel to South Korea to help with
the UN Command. Defense Minister Judith Collins with us on
this very good morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
You, Oh good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Is this increasingly an angsty part of the world.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Well, I think any of us who look at the
world now, we can see that things are obviously moving
in a difficult way. But it's also important to note
that the United Nations Command is asked for the sextra
contribution from US as though from my point of view,
it's a road of confidence in New Zealand's role and

(00:35):
we're considered a very good player in the world with
people who contribute well and our people will do well.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
What will they be doing well?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
There's an honor Guard, which is the extra to what
we've done before. It's at eighty five personnel. Those are
mostly younger lease experienced of our Defense Force team. So
it's a really good opportunity for those with a couple
of years service to actually get not only some overseas deployment,
but actually working with other nations because now we are

(01:07):
one of several other countries involved that it's good for
them to do that, good for their training, good for
their understanding of how we're working with other countries. And
then of course we've got an extra six going to
the currently twelve that we currently provide to the Armistice
Commission and the new.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
In command and given the parlor state in parts of
our defense force to forty one stretches or are we
comfortable with us?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Mostly the large number of this is actually our newer
people and so the factors that will be good for them.
One of the best things we can do in defense
is to keep everyone home because frankfully, no one joins
defense because they want to improve their missing skills at home.
They really do want to be out there in the

(01:56):
world again to rub shoulders with the people that we
work with in defense roles. So this is good for defense,
it's good for us retaining people, and it's really good
for us to bringing new people in good stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Appreciate your time. Defenseman is the Judith Collins. For more
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