Australia has successfully delivered a new landing craft vessel to Tonga today, with an official handover ceremony taking place at the Masefield Naval Base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Australian DoD press release<\/p>\n
The ceremony was attended by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Tupouto\u2018a \u2018Ulukalala, Tonga\u2019s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for His Majesty\u2019s Armed Forces, who received the vessel on behalf of Tonga.<\/p>\n
The VOEA Late, provided under the Pacific Maritime Security Program (PMSP), will enhance Tonga\u2019s humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities, as well as their ability to deter, detect and disrupt illegal maritime activities in the region.<\/p>\n
Australia will provide a comprehensive package of through-life maintenance and sustainment for the vessel, alongside training for Tonga Royal Navy crew members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defence\u2019s First Assistant Secretary Pacific Division, Susan Bodell, said the delivery highlighted Australia\u2019s commitment to supporting our Pacific partners\u2019 maritime security.<\/p>\n
\u201cAustralia and Tonga share a trusted and enduring security partnership,\u201d Ms Bodell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe delivery of the new landing craft builds on decades of partnership, and upholds our shared commitment to sovereignty, security and prosperity in the Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n
The delivery follows the completion of comprehensive training undertaken by Tonga Royal Navy personnel at the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania. The training equipped the crew with the necessary skills to safely operate the vessel.<\/p>\n
The PMSP is Australia\u2019s 30 year commitment to increase national and regional maritime security throughout the Pacific, and builds on the three decades of success in the original Pacific Patrol Boat Program.<\/p>\n
-End-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia has successfully delivered a new landing craft vessel to Tonga today, with an official handover ceremony taking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,15790,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-106225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-landing-craft","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}