Editing New Zealand Defence Force (section)

==Foreign defence relations==
[[Image:Gate Pa Veh.jpg|thumb|New Zealand [[M113A1]] armoured personnel carriers of UNTAET at the Gate Pā base in the southern [[Suai, East Timor|Suai]] area, East Timor, 2002]]
[[File:SH 60F Sea Hawk helicopter in the Solomon Islands.jpg|thumb|New Zealand and Australian military personnel boarding a [[United States Navy]] helicopter to administer medical aid in outlying areas of the [[Solomon Islands]] during a humanitarian aid mission after the [[2007 Solomon Islands earthquake]].]]
{{See also|Foreign relations of New Zealand}}

New Zealand states it maintains a "credible minimum force", although critics (including the [[New Zealand National Party]] while in opposition) maintain that the country's defence forces have fallen below this standard.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleId=4873 |title=News |publisher=National.org.nz |access-date=2015-06-24 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130729083853/http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?ArticleId=4873 |archive-date=29 July 2013}}</ref> With a claimed area of direct strategic concern that extends from Australia to [[Southeast Asia]] to the [[Oceania|South Pacific]], and with defence expenditures that total around 1.5% of [[Gross domestic product|GDP]], New Zealand necessarily places substantial reliance on co-operating with other countries, particularly Australia.

New Zealand is an active participant in multilateral peacekeeping. It has taken a leading role in peace-keeping in the [[Solomon Islands]] and the neighbouring island of [[Bougainville Island|Bougainville]]. New Zealand has contributed to [[United Nations]] and other peacekeeping operations in [[Angola]], [[Cambodia]], [[Somalia]], [[Lebanon]] and the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|former Yugoslavia]]. It also participated in the [[Multilateral Interception Force in the Persian Gulf]]. New Zealand has an ongoing [[peacekeeping]] commitment to [[East Timor]], where it participated in the [[INTERFET]], [[UNTAET]] and [[UMAMET]] missions from 1999 to 2002. At one point over 1,000 NZDF personnel were in East Timor. The deployment included the vessels HMNZS Canterbury, Te Kaha and Endeavour, six Iroquois helicopters, two C-130 Hercules and an infantry battalion. In response to renewed conflict in 2006 more troops were deployed as part of an international force. New Zealand has participated in 2 NATO-led coalitions; SFOR in the Former Yugoslavia (until December 2004) and an ongoing one in Afghanistan (which took over from a US-led coalition in 2006). New Zealand also participated in the European Union [[EUFOR Althea|EUFOR]] operation in the former Yugoslavia from December 2004 until New Zealand ended its 15-year continuous contribution there on 30 June 2007.

As of December 2015, New Zealand had 167 personnel deployed across the globe. These deployments are to Afghanistan(8), Antarctica(8), South Korea(5), Iraq(106), Middle East(8), Sinai(26), South Sudan(3) and the United Arab Emirates(11). 209 NZDF personnel are on other deployments and exercises.

New Zealand shares training facilities, personnel exchanges, and joint exercises with the [[Philippines]], [[Thailand]], [[Indonesia]], [[Papua New Guinea]], [[Brunei]], [[Tonga]], and South Pacific states. It exercises with its [[Five Power Defence Arrangement]]s partners, [[Australia]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Malaysia]], and [[Singapore]]. New Zealand military personnel participate in training exercises, conferences and visits as part of [[military diplomacy]].

New Zealand is a signatory of the [[ANZUS]] treaty, a defence pact between New Zealand, Australia and the United States dating from 1951. After the 1986 anti-nuclear legislation that refused access of nuclear-powered or armed vessels to ports, the USA withdrew its obligations to New Zealand under ANZUS. ANZUS exercises are now bilateral between Australia and the United States. Under anti-nuclear legislation, any ship must declare whether it is nuclear-propelled or carrying nuclear weapons before entering New Zealand waters. Due to the US policy at that time of "neither confirm nor deny", ship visits ceased although NZ and the USA remained "good friends".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/3995638a13135.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930043259/http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/3995638a13135.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title=Clark and Bush: focusing on the common ground |work=[[The Press]] |date=19 March 2007 |access-date=6 May 2007 }}</ref> Following the Wellington Declaration<ref>{{Cite web |title=US / NZ Strategic Partnership launches new era |url=https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/us-nz-strategic-partnership-launches-new-era |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=The Beehive |language=en}}</ref> in 2010, US and NZ government announced a resumption of military cooperation in 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2013-10-28 |title=US and New Zealand resume military cooperation |language=en-AU |work=ABC News |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-29/an-nz-and-us-resume-military-ties/5051400 |access-date=2022-05-31}}</ref> Port visits resumed in 2016, when the U.S. Navy was invited to send a ship to participate in the RNZN's 75th Birthday Celebration, and destroyer [[USS Sampson (DDG-102)]] visited Auckland.

[[File:NZ Soldiers Afghanistan 2009.jpg|thumb|right|Two members of the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan during 2009]]
The NZDF served alongside NATO-led forces in Afghanistan in the first decade of the twenty-first century, and in 2004 the [[NZSAS]] was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation by US President George W Bush for "extraordinary heroism" in action. In 2008 US Secretary of State [[Condoleezza Rice]] during a visit to New Zealand said "New Zealand is now a friend and an ally".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0807/S00761.htm|title=Scoop World Coverage: Sec. Condoleezza Rice in NZ – Scoop News|access-date=2 November 2016}}</ref>

New Zealand is a member of the [[ABCA Armies]] standardisation programme, the naval [[AUSCANNZUKUS]] forum, the Air and Space Interoperability Council (ASIC, the former ASCC, which, among other tasks, allocates [[NATO reporting names]]) and other Western '[[UKUSA Agreement|Five Eyes]]' fora for sharing [[signals intelligence]] information and achieving interoperability with like-minded armed forces, such as [[The Technical Cooperation Program]] (TTCP).