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2013-11-01
STRONG TIES OF NZ, UAE TO GET FURTHER BOOST
H.E. appreciated the UAE’s role in international exhibitions such as IDEX and Dubai Airshow and lauded the UAE for its ability to host such shows which draw top industry players who know that the events are worth participating.
Would you please tell us the aim of your visit to the UAE?
The New Zealand Defense Force and the United Arab Emirates Defense Force have been working together for quite some time in support of both our efforts in Afghanistan and that’s created a good linkage between our two militaries.
Over the last two or three years we’ve been slowly working towards identifying areas where we can cooperate well, where one side can add skills that can be shared with the other party to improve the ability to operate together as well as the ability to operate in a coalition. This visit is another chance to cement the relationship, making it firm, but also for us to have some discussions around where we can be working well together. During this time I’ll visit – or will have visited – a number of locations in Armed Forces and the Abu Dhabi Shipbuilding Company to see the maintenance of the navy, and again this is yet another opportunity to see the Emirati military in operation.
How do you evaluate the progress that has been achieved in the field of military cooperation between New Zealand and the UAE? Also, are there any plans to enhance it?
We’re still at the early stages of the engagement of our two countries working together. We’ve worked well in the past to support each other in other places in the world but we’re now at the starting block of how we can engage in this region. We’ve had an initial examination of how we could work together and I have sent teams over here to start talking more directly at unit level. Those recommendations are now being considered by both our governments and in the near future we hope that a memorandum, or an agreement, between the two countries which sets out what we can do will be signed. That will allow us to develop even further what options there are.
How would military cooperation between our countries boost relations and mutual interests?
I think both countries have a very similar outlook internationally, how we see issues in the Gulf region, issues in the wide Middle East as well as Central Asia, some of the instability that’s happening in parts of Africa. We’ve found over the last decade that both countries have a very similar strategic approach and outlook. We both see things from the perspective of a small country, we both identify that we need to work with others to be able to contribute to solving the world’s problems and that puts us in the same space politically. For us, being able to work together, or having forces that are used to working together allows us to go to another place to be able to help as well as for us to work together here.
The UAE plays a role in international humanitarian assistance. How do you evaluate the role?
The work that the United Arab Emirates has done in other countries – and I have seen it first-hand in Afghanistan, but we know of other locations – is held in very high respect around the world. And this is one of the reasons that the UAE and New Zealand have a very similar view of our responsibilities. In the same way that you provide a great deal of aid and put teams in for relief circumstances or focus on trying to solve some of the social issues in places that you go, so does New Zealand. We certainly look at the Emirates with respect as you’re doing those right things – the military is not just there to fight conflict, it’s there to resolve issues and provide help where it can.
The UAE is a substantial player in international exhibitions. What are your thoughts on this area and to what degree are you involved in IDEX and other major exhibitions in this country such as the Dubai International Air Show?
New Zealand has been sending people to IDEX (in Abu Dhabi) and the (Dubai) International Air Show for quite some time. Indeed, my chief of the air force is attending this year’s air show. This is a good example of the enhancement of the (UAE) role as one of the capability leaders or the industrial leaders or commercial leaders in the region. The ability to host and draw in the industry players that know that the events are worthwhile shows again the respect your country is held in that regard. If they weren’t seen as being good exhibitions or there were credibility issues then those commercial companies would not come. The fact that they do come is really a great sign.
Is there any sort of cooperation between the national defense companies in both countries and if so, what would be the expected results of such cooperation?
Both countries’ defense industries are really based on the cooperation of large international players such as Babcock, British Aerospace and Lockheed Martin. Therefore, both countries are used to working with those large organisations in order to support our own forces, here in the UAE or back home in New Zealand. A lot of the engagement we have is through those larger companies where our teams will find themselves working together. There are some direct situations where there has been an industrial engagement. New Zealand jet engines are used to power some of your customs vessels, an example where small New Zealand industries with particular small products can come and partner with a large organisation to provide support.
To what extent can our two countries cooperate in achieving security and peace in this region and internationally?
Internationally, I think it’s important that small countries which have to do things together rather than the ability to solve the problems by themselves, have the confidence to work with the other country’s armed forces so they know how the other country operates. They trust them in the skills that they have and there’s an understanding of how they operate. This allows us to step into any environment, either in the local Gulf region or further afield in a stability operation perhaps in Africa, Central Asia or other parts of the Middle East. It’s important that small countries feel they can contribute and their contributions are valued. Something the Emirates does very well is that it keeps its training standards at a very high level. A case in point is the Air War College where the standards are at NATO levels of capability. It’s a good example of where our countries might only have small contributions but they can fit in and operate at the highest level and work with larger countries such as France, United States and United Kingdom, and be really valued for what we can bring. Our contributions may not be large but they’ll be very good. I think the reputation for that is something the UAE and New Zealand can be proud of.
The UAE recently established a National Defense College – to what extent can this help in security and national stability? And is there any possibility of cooperation between our two countries concerning the college?
One of the important things about higher level officer education in any national defense college system that any country would set up is the basis that people from other countries would join and participate in it. That builds trust by knowing people and it builds understanding by talking about different perspectives various countries have. It builds stability by understanding but also by creating a peer group of networks of contacts where military people – particularly in the region – can talk to each other and know the person they’re talking to. It might be a senior officer or a key policy person in the country. In times of great tension where things are uncertain, that ability to be able to talk to someone in another country that they know becomes very important. Quite apart from what is taught at the colleges is the important fact that you are getting people together as a group to discuss issues to gain understanding internationally but also across different agencies. These could be defense, maybe police, or other agencies. They can talk about what is the police view, the defense view or what is the UAE’s view of a situation. Those are the situations where it adds to security through understanding and building networks of contact.
Do you think your country intends playing any military role in the Middle East in the future?
New Zealand has been playing a military role in the Middle East for the last 100 years. The Middle East is important to New Zealand for our trade. We were here in World War I and World War II and later in the Palestine issues. It’s not because we can solve the problem or that we know the answer but again it’s about small nations contributing. It’s not up to a soldier to say whether the politicians of the country will make these decisions, all I can say is that the Middle East is very important to New Zealand. We have a history of coming here and helping countries in the region and I’m confident that will remain.
Do you think the media and information war represents a challenge to the armed forces in general?
Yes. There’s an expectation now – because it’s possible – for the public to want to know what the military is doing. Yet a lot of what the military does needs to be kept to itself. We don’t want the people we may be fighting in the future such as insurgents or terrorists to know our tactics. So there’s that conflict between the media who want to know more and the public who want to know more and the military which needs to protect secrecy or security because things are operational. There’s also wider scrutiny from the media about the policy side of where the military is and that tends to create a bit more profile for parts of the population to protest about what the military is doing. I’ll use an example from New Zealand where we were in Afghanistan and we were doing good things there. We had a provincial reconstruction team; we were training a counter terrorism unit to teach the rule of law, how to be policemen rather than soldiers in operation and how not to mistreat prisoners. So we were doing good things and were confident about that but couldn’t talk about details of our tactics. But because there was a feeling we were not sharing with the public there was a small number of people in our media industry who said we were clearly hiding something and must be doing things wrong. That caused morale problems among our soldiers who were doing good things but felt they weren’t supported. It caused some public comment and it cause political comment from opposition parties about what we were doing. I’d say it’s more the perception rather than reality – the military will still do things but it may have to do them more slowly because there might be reluctance on the part of the politicians because of the media light. And there may be some real issues as the military can’t often respond as openly as the media would like or it can’t answer questions. There are issues to get around. I don’t think any military has solved that as we still want to preserve secrecy and security while the media wants to have their stories.
We believe students from all over the world study in your country. To what degree do they benefit and are foreign military students likely to encounter any difficulties there?
New Zealand takes a lot of pride in being able to attract students from all over the world. Students from the Middle East have been coming to New Zealand for a long time to study and learn, including military students at our universities for civilian degrees plus there’s also the invitation to attend our staff college. So New Zealand does like to think it can create that environment where people from other nations or cultures can come and feel they are accepted and respected for their own culture. But it also creates the environment as they are learning that they have different perspectives. If it was only New Zealanders studying it would be a very singular view but the fact that they might have Chinese, South American, Middle Eastern, Indian or European students there as well means they have a much wider view. I think countries that have a lot of foreign students, particularly out-of-region foreign students, gain a lot of benefit. Certainly, any Emirati military studying in New Zealand will find that although the size of the study may be small, a great part of the study and the student body will be from other countries. And a large part of discussion will be about those different perspectives. That education principle of having as wide a view as possible is not about getting everyone to agree, it’s about different perspectives and everyone understanding there are different perspectives. I think that’s a positive learning environment for anyone coming to another country and I think that’s something New Zealand does well.
Media in the military - is it that important now?
Like you in the UAE, New Zealand has a strong defense cell that is quite active and has an important role to play. It provides advice or provides a forum where we can put out our messages to our own people and this is important because we want army, navy air force people to be aware of what’s happening in the defense environment compared to how the commercial media will portray it. So as our own soldiers, sailors and airmen are out in society in their groups and something comes on television, our people can say, “Well, that’s not quite right, this is the real story behind that.” This means they become the real means of transmitting the message out into the community. Our own people can understand, they’ll often talk about specific military or technical issues. It also means there is a group with a far greater understanding of the commercial media environment so they can interpret what we are saying and advise on how best to put that message out. There’s a balance and they (the military’s media) are essential to what we do.
Richard Rhys
Lieutenant General Richard Rhys Jones was born in Timaru, New Zealand on 2 May 1960. He was educated at Wanganui Boy’s College and attained University Entrance. He enlisted into the New Zealand Army in December 1978 and attended the Royal Military College, Duntroon Australia from 1979 to 1982. He graduated into the Royal New Zealand Armoured Corps at the rank of Lieutenant in December 1982, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. During his career he has attended staff college at Fort Leavenworth, USA, and higher defence college at the Australian Defence College. He has also attained a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies from La Trobe University (Melbourne) as well as a Diploma in Qualitative Futures. In 1987/88 he was the New Zealand Instructor at the Australian Defence Force Academy. From 1992 to 1995 he was an instructor at New Zealand’s Tactical School. He has also been Chief Instructor at the School of Armour and has been the New Zealand Directing Staff at the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, part of the Australian Defence College. He has had operational duty in the Middle East with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation, as an observer, then Operations Officer with the Observer Group Lebanon.
He has commanded at every senior level. in October 2007 Major General Jones became the Commander Joint Forces New Zealand on promotion to Major General. He was appointed the Chief of Army on 1 May 2009. He was promoted to his current rank and assumed the appointment of Chief of Defence Force on 24 January 2011.
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