a sharp rebuke<\/a> from Beijing.<\/p>\nVan Welie\u2019s assertion to the troops was backed by the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew\u202fZealand is facing its most challenging and dangerous strategic environment in decades,\u201d Defence Minister Judith Collins told the Herald.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the world we want, but it is the world we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Minister]()
Minister of Defence Judith Collins (centre) inspects a graduation parade at Waiouru Military Camp. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
Collins pointed to increased military activity in the Indo\u2011Pacific, including a recent ballistic missile test into the South Pacific. <\/p>\n
The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East were further obvious instances of a deteriorating global environment, she said.<\/p>\n
The Government\u2019s Defence Capability Plan focused on increasing defence spending, ensuring the NZDF could respond to crises and support and operate with Pacific partners.<\/p>\n
Security analyst Paul Buchanan said the increased \u201cpressure\u201d needed to be kept in perspective, which included the People\u2019s Republic of China\u2019s growing presence in the Pacific.<\/p>\n
![\"Security]()
Security analyst Paul Buchanan. Photo \/ 36th Parallel Assessments<\/p>\n
Although China was expanding its reach globally \u2013 something major powers typically do \u2013 it was unlikely to pose a direct threat to New Zealand\u2019s sovereignty, Buchanan said.<\/p>\n
Much of the strain on New Zealand\u2019s defence posture, he said, came from trying to balance security partnerships with economic realities.<\/p>\n
New Zealand\u2019s defence and intelligence ties were aligned with Australia and the United States, but China remained the country\u2019s largest trading partner.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The urban clearance task involved moving from room to room, shooting enemy targets with chalk pellets. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
For Warrant Officer Class One Paul Buckley, the heavy rain falling across the Waiouru training area was a positive sign, because discomfort is the point.<\/p>\n
Buckley, who oversees the Skill at Arms competition, has spent years training and testing soldiers. He said the event was designed to push people towards failure in controlled conditions, with long marches, demanding tasks, little sleep and foul weather.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the real thing, they\u2019ll be more than frustrated.<\/p>\n
![\"Warrant]()
Warrant Officer Class One Paul Buckley trains soldiers so they \u201cmake it home\u201d. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can get them to push past that point, it will grow resilience. If you\u2019re sitting in a hole and you\u2019re getting artillery and you\u2019re getting shot at, then it\u2019s very important you know your limits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having teams from Australia, Fiji and Tonga, with observers from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, was also important because they could one day be the soldiers New Zealanders fight alongside, he said.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The Skill At Arms competition is a barometer for combat readiness within the 1st (NZ) Brigade. Photo \/ Mike Scott<\/p>\n
Skill At Arms was an opportunity to assess combat readiness at section level within the brigade and also demonstrated interoperability with other Pacific forces.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know what you can take and you know what the person next to you can take.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The competition was staged last week at Waiouru. Observing was Colonel Mike van Welie, commander of the 1st…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8227,806,7236,118628,1403,273,8223,48879,17240,28063,191927,6805,111,43,139,69,423,21411,84772,8244,381,1519,2437,5843,131,8812,810,2963],"class_list":{"0":"post-365171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-army","9":"tag-as","10":"tag-combat","11":"tag-commanders","12":"tag-defence","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-forces","15":"tag-greater","16":"tag-grow","17":"tag-heightened","18":"tag-indopacific","19":"tag-memory","20":"tag-new-zealand","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-point","25":"tag-pressure","26":"tag-ramps","27":"tag-recent","28":"tag-region","29":"tag-risks","30":"tag-security","31":"tag-senior","32":"tag-than","33":"tag-training","34":"tag-up","35":"tag-zealands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}