PUTRAJAYA: New Zealand is set to enhance defence ties with Malaysia by deploying its maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft in a joint exercise.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, at a joint press conference with his Malaysian counterpart Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today, said his country would be deploying their new Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft at Butterworth air base, Penang.
"With our overall strategic partnership, Anwar and I today have agreed to inject more momentum into our collaboration.
"We're expanding our defence cooperation, including by deploying one of our New Zealand Air Force new P-8 Poseidon to Butterworth to exercise together," he said.
He also said that the two countries had agreed in a new cooperation and enhanced efforts in combating transnational crime, terrorism and extremism.
"When you think about transnational organised crime, those are issues affecting both of our countries. There's huge opportunities to deal with that.
"We both are all very conscious of the rise of violent extremism and also wanting to maintain social cohesion in what are increasingly multicultural societies and those are things that we will continue to work hard at," he said.
Malaysia and New Zealand were notably a member of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) - a strategic defence alliance that also includes Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
Established in 1971 in response to the British military withdrawal from Southeast Asia, the FPDA was designed to ensure the security of Malaysia and Singapore.
The alliance had provided both nations with a framework for defence cooperation, facilitating joint exercises, defence planning, and the exchange of military knowledge and expertise.
It had evolved to address not only traditional military threats, but also non-traditional security challenges, such as cybercrime, piracy, and disaster relief.
Earlier, Luxon was accorded an official welcome at Dataran Perdana here.
He was greeted by Anwar and they both inspected the main guard of honour from the First Battalion of the Royal Malay Regiment.
This is Luxon's first visit to Malaysia since taking office in November last year.