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Speaker 1: Concerns from the Defense Force about three Chinese navy vessels

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Speaker 1: with enormous strike power sailing off the coast of Australia.

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Speaker 1: The Defense Force is monitoring the Naval Task Group in

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Speaker 1: the Tasman Sea. This is about two hundred and eighty

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Speaker 1: kilometers offshore. China's government hasn't informed our government or Australia's

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Speaker 1: of its intentions. The Defense Ministers due to Collins High

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Speaker 1: Minister Oh Hi Ryan, good to have you on the show.

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Speaker 1: Have we had any word from the Chinese yet?

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Speaker 2: No. My advice is that we were not informed or

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Speaker 2: have not been formed by the Chinese government why this

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Speaker 2: task group has been deployed into our region and we've

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Speaker 2: not been informed what its future plans are.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything we need to worry about.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's an unusual move it certainly. I've been told

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Speaker 2: that it's the first time that we've had this sort

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Speaker 2: of capability from the PLA in our waters. It's when

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Speaker 2: off the coast of Australia. Incredible capability some of these

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Speaker 2: two of these ships in particular, and you know once

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Speaker 2: an anti submarine could engage in anti submarine warfare. Stealth

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Speaker 2: guided missile destroyer able to carry and launch surface to

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Speaker 2: air missiles. Really quite stunning pieces of equipment and we've

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Speaker 2: never seen them in this area before.

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Speaker 1: We don't think they're going to use them though, do we.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is more posturing, isn't it than actual

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Speaker 1: real threat.

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Speaker 2: I don't think anyone's suggesting that they're about to be

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Speaker 2: used against us, in all the Australians. It's just that

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Speaker 2: they are here, first time we've seen them, and just

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Speaker 2: a change in operation operating area.

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Speaker 1: Really, so what do we do about it? Just watch them?

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Speaker 2: Well, we watch them, we monitor. That's what we do

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Speaker 2: along with the Australians, and we work together. We've got

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Speaker 2: the pah a poseidons, we've got our frigate, we've got

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Speaker 2: various other things out there, and we're working, as I said,

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Speaker 2: along with the Australians, just to keep an eye on

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Speaker 2: things and make sure that everyone knows that we're watching.

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Speaker 1: The ICBM that they launched last year into the Pacific,

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Speaker 1: they gave us twenty four hours note were warning for that.

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Speaker 1: Has there been any consequence for them for doing that?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think the consequence that I saw was that

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Speaker 2: a lot of Pacific nations that had only seen the

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Speaker 2: really great side of China, which is economic growth and

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Speaker 2: areas like that. Suddenly felt very disrespected because we were

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Speaker 2: pretty much the only people that I'm aware of who

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Speaker 2: got told and certainly a lot of the Pacific nations

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Speaker 2: that ICBM, which could be nuclear capable. What those countries

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Speaker 2: got told was nothing until after it happened.

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Speaker 1: The Cooks obviously didn't get the message.

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Speaker 2: I think the Cooks are going through a phase at

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Speaker 2: the moment. But we very much loved the cook Iren

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Speaker 2: people and they are New Zealand citizen and we're here

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Speaker 2: for them.

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Speaker 1: You just come back from Munich. Must have been a

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Speaker 1: fascinating conference to be at, you know, with JD Vance

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Speaker 1: and everything that was going on there. But you talked

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Speaker 1: about security obviously a lot. What was it like being there?

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Speaker 1: What was it like being in the room, Well.

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Speaker 2: It was certainly interesting being in the room. When Vice

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Speaker 2: President vask gave a speech there was I al agreed

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Speaker 2: with quite a lot of what he said about democracy

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Speaker 2: and freedom of speech and free elections. Those are really

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Speaker 2: good things. I think though that the audience was expecting

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Speaker 2: a bit more about defense and Ukraine and support for Ukraine,

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Speaker 2: so there was a little bit of disappointment in the room.

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Speaker 2: But look, it's just understandable that the Europeans are looking

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Speaker 2: to their own defense budgets and saying we have to

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Speaker 2: increase our spending. The US is looking to see what

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Speaker 2: they can do too. Factors, it's a very challenging time.

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Speaker 2: And what concerns me and what concerns many people in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand and also Australia is what messages do does

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Speaker 2: anyone take from a deal with Ukraine? Unless Ukraine actually

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Speaker 2: has the sovereignty.

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Speaker 1: And also if it's not backed up by at least

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Speaker 1: air cover and other capabilities from the US.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think other countries are looking to step up

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Speaker 2: in certainly the UK is and you've heard our primes

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Speaker 2: to say that if we were asked to and if

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Speaker 2: it's worked for US, we would also provide peacekeeping capability

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Speaker 2: and we have already contributed around one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 2: million dollars in training and also equipment and money for

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Speaker 2: drones another warfare equipment to Ukraine. We believe in democracy

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Speaker 2: and we think it's worth fighting for.

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Speaker 1: Do you know how many troops would we put on

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Speaker 1: would we be able to do in a peacekeeping mission?

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Speaker 1: Do you know have you had any advance on that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I haven't had any advice on that, but I

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Speaker 2: know that our people are always keen to be deployed.

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Speaker 2: We've got you know, look, we don't keep it defense

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Speaker 2: force unless they're willing to be able to be deployed.

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Speaker 2: And the last thing we ever do is ever to

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Speaker 2: deploy them to something like an MiQ facility and watch

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Speaker 2: the guts actually be ripped out of the Defense Force.

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Speaker 2: So we're rebuilding and they these boys and girls, Boy

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Speaker 2: do they love getting an uniform and getting off and

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Speaker 2: doing some stuff.

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Speaker 1: Are you getting more money for this budget for defense?

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Speaker 1: Are you all?

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Speaker 2: Well? Do you just have to wait and see. I'm

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Speaker 2: a happy little pixie actually defense at the moment. All right,

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Speaker 2: you know very clear we have to spend more on defense.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well we hit two percent.

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Speaker 2: You have to wait and see. But you know, Brian,

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Speaker 2: I'll come on your show and talk about it. What's

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Speaker 2: our THEESTP goes through?

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Speaker 1: All right? You keep watching those Chinese vessels in the meantime.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Judith Collins, thanks so much for your time,

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Speaker 1: the Defense Minister, ju Collins. For more from Heather Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drive, listen live to News Talks. It'd be from

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