Ron Mark: former Defence Minister on whether New Zealand has the capacity to send troops to Ukraine

Does New Zealand have the capacity to send troops to Ukraine? 

Prime Minister Chris Luxon has said he's open to the idea, after a meeting of EU leaders in Paris.

He's also outlined his ambition to bring our defence spending close to two percent of GDP.

Former Defence Minister Ron Mark says the call to send Kiwi troops would depend on what role, function, and number they'd be deployed in.

"We know from the many deployments we have around the world that some deployments might just be one or two officers, maybe a dozen in different locales."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan bridgew Zealand is open to sending peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.
Here's the Prime Minister this morning. I'll tell you what
he said. He said we are open to sending troops
to Ukraine. He also wants to get defense spending close
to two percent of GDP. We're currently spending just over
one percent. The former Defense minister is Ron Marky's with
me this evening.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hello, Hello, Ryan, how are you today?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Very well? Thank you. Do we have the capacity to
send well, would we have the capacity to send troops
to Ukraine?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, it depends what role and what function they were
being asked to perform. Ryan, I think we know from
the many deployments we have around the world that some
deployments might just be one or two officers, maybe a
dozen in different locales, not like the I think the
eight we've got the United Nations. It might be larger

(00:51):
the twenty eight we've got with your multinational force and observers,
or you know, if we're considering the seven thousand odd
that we sent to Ease teamor over a extended duration,
that was quite a different deployment as was Bosnire. So
it really comes down to what does New Zealand want
to do and what role would it want to take

(01:14):
up in a peacekeeping mission? Are we going to put
troops on the ground to enforce a peace keeping a
deal or are we going to make cups of tea? Well?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Good question. What do you think about this idea that
we pump out spending up to two percent? Were currently
at about one point two I mean, that's but we're
talking billions and billions of dollars here. It would happen
and presumably over a long period of time, but do
we need to do that?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Well? When I wrote the New Zealand First Defense Policy
way back in the nineteen nineties and I advocated that
we should be targeting a budget of two percent of GDP,
a lot of people scoffed at it. And I think
even the dimmest researchers will find which parties in the
Parliament have always resisted increasing defense spending. I think we're
anywhere near one point one percent right now. Ryan. We

(02:03):
hit that high in my time as Minister of Defense,
but we've slipped back again. I guess the fund that
the base question right now is if we are going
to deploy an elements to assist with the peacekeeping operation
in Ukraine. What would that look like and how much
money would that require? Who's going to pay for it?
Are we going to see an immediate injection into the

(02:25):
Defense Force to meet such a commitment? And what is
the commitment going to be is? I don't think you
can deploy troops anywhere without providing the resources, both material
personnel or be they material personnel or fiscal And to
expect the Chief of Defense Force to make a deploy
troops on another mission without having an increase in his

(02:47):
budget to cover that would not be sensible. It would
be setting people up to fail.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Certainly sounds reasonable to me. Ron, Thank you very much
for that. Ron Mark, who's the former Defense minister with
us just gone fourteen minutes after five the Prime Minister
this morning. This is what he had to say on
sending troops to peacekeeping troops to Ukraine.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
I think we've got a long way to go. We
are very supportive of Ukraine. We'd be open to it.
We stand with the Ukraine. It's important, you know, we
have these values about nation states, sovereignty, you know, rule
of law. You know, we'd be open to that. There
you go.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
I mean a lot of what had gone to the
bridge before we get there, isn't there for more from
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