Missiles are launched from a United States military HIMARS system during military drills being held in Queensland, Australia, as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre. Photo: Andrew Leeson / AFP
The Green Party says it is concerned by New Zealand's presence in a large-scale international military exercise in Australia.
Almost 30,000 personnel from New Zealand, Australia, the United States and ten other countries have been taking part in war games in Queensland as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre - though they have been paused due to an Australian military helicopter crash.
The Green Party's defence spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said it was alarming to see the defence force participate in the militarisation of the Pacific.
"China and the US are engaged in some kind of competition over the Pacific right now and New Zealand must display a principled, independent voice and lift our Pacific neighbours above the interests of these overly-militarised superpowers."
Ghahraman said the Pacific had a long history of being harmed by other countries' military exercises.
But Victoria University's director of strategic studies said New Zealand's involvement in Exercise Talisman Sabre was a timely return to combat readiness for the defence forces.
David Capie said the war games represented the first chance to work alongside this country's military partners since the Covid-19 pandemic.
"For a long time New Zealanders have started to think that the reason we have a defence force is about some of those other tasks - responding to floods, responding to cyclones, responding to natural disasters - but the reason we have a defence force is to be able to give the government options and choices should it need to use military effect."
Capie said he doubted the show of strength would raise tensions with China, which had signalled it would be closely monitoring the war games in Australia.
It was important for New Zealand's military forces to prove their capability when working alongside forces from partnering nations, including the United States, Capie said.
"It won't be any surprise that China doesn't like these kind of exercises; it'll be critical of these exercises, but China engages in its own series of military exercises," he said.
"This is a long way from regional flash-points, this is an exercise that's been very well signalled - I don't think it's going to contribute to raising regional tensions."
For now, the military resources on the ground in Australia for the war games have been diverted to finding the four crew of a helicopter involved in the military exercise that crashed off Queensland's coast on Friday night.