Judith Collins: Defence Minister condemns China's intercontinental ballistic missile test over Pacific Ocean

The Defence Minister says China featured in round-table talks with South Pacific partners this week. 

Auckland hosted the annual meeting for ministers from Australia, Fiji, France, Chile, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

Judith Collins says everybody was very disappointed by China's recent intercontinental ballistic missile test over the Pacific Ocean. 

She says New Zealand was told a few hours beforehand. 

"But most of the countries over whose territory it would have flown did not know about it - and people felt that that was unwelcomed, unexpected and unnecessary 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Seventeen five on newstalk z B. New Zealand's been hosting
the South Pacific Defense Ministers Meeting in Auckland. It includes
defense ministers from Australia, Feegen around the Pacific and they
have discussed approaches to non traditional security challenges and regional
security risks. The group has decided to immediately establish a
new Pacific Response Group which will create greater certainty to

(00:20):
Pacific island countries in advance of an incident. Judith Collins
is the Defense Minister and is with us this evening.
Good evening is a non traditional security challenge just a
code word for China. No.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
I think it's the fact that we are dealing with
a whole lot of security challenges, whether it's the effects
of climate change, the volcanos, all those sorts of things,
or else. It's in particular the transnational crime that is
unfortunately come into the Pacific and it's all about drugs

(00:55):
and that's sort of behavior and money laundering. So yeah,
they're not what people need necessarily think about as defense issues,
but they absolutely are.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
How much does China factor in your conversations?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
We certainly spoke something of that. I mean, I think
everybody was very disappointed that regarding China's intercontinental ballistic missile test,
people didn't know about it. New Zealand was told a
couple of hours beforehand in Beijing, but most of the people,

(01:28):
most of the countries over whose territory it would have flown,
did not know about it. And people felt that that
was unwelcomed, unexpected and unnecessary tell.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Us about this new force.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, so something we discussed last year in December, our
very first we call it the Spudham Meeting, and we
thought it's an Australian idea. We think it's a great idea.
We've talked about it, worked on it all year and
potentially it's based in Brisbane to start with. It'll have

(02:06):
a couple of senior people from New Zealand, from Tonga,
from all around the Pacific militaries and what they're going
to be doing is getting to find out what people
have got being able to coordinate responses to emergencies so
that not everybody is charging in the same equipment or

(02:26):
the same assistance. So if we take for example, what's
happened in Tonga in the relatively recent past around the
Honga Hunger volcanic eruption best if we're all understanding what
everyone else is bringing and also, by the way, making
sure that Tonga and any others of their country wants

(02:48):
what we've had rather than us just presuming we know.
So that's what this is all about.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
So you've got that, that's the advisory team that makes
up part of the Pacific Response Group, right, But would
the response group, once it's established, would that respond to
security threats as well as natural disasters?

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, we felt that the it's actually not creating its
own military like that. It's about really it's a coordination response.
So perhaps the last issue where situation security situation where
Pacific countries were involved in a response was in the
Solomons in the Ramsey response and you remember Australian, MW

(03:30):
Zealand and all around the Pacific were involved in that.
And this is actually giving that some sort of structure
so that we can work together to do those sorts
of things better because we know that even though we
are a very peaceful ocean, every now and again something's
going to happen and we need to be prepared.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
But it basically means that that if there is a
natural disaster, or if there is a security threat and
this group is invited in in the future you go
in alongside the Australians, alongside other countries with a coordinated
group or force in order to respond.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
You haven't got it in a nutshell, but on invitation.
It's working together. I mean, these are the nations in
the South specific who have military capability. And you know,
the question is why wouldn't we want to work together.
We've already worked together and it's just giving it structure.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Could they be armed?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
We hadn't thought about that. I would expect that it
would only be if that was what the host country wanted,
and even then only if we wanted it. Obviously there
are times when that might be necessary, but hopefully not,
and more likely it will be around natural disasters.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Hey, thanks for your time. We appreciate it. Oh but
before I let you go, do you see your numbers
today for mood of the boardroom? Oh?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Do you know what I did? Even though I've been
so busy today, there.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Was one notification that made it through. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Strangely that's that one got through.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Well, congratulations. Fifth best performer according to More the mood
of the borderom out of Cabinet, which is yeah, you know,
very you can be very pleased with that.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
It's a number. You know, we're all part of the table,
working hard.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
If it's anything like like media ratings, you've got to
celebrate them when they're good, because when they're bad, you
always feel stinct. Thanks Judith. That is Defense Minister Judith Collins.
Right now, it's twenty two past five. For more from
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