Chris Lynch: New Zealand and Philippines to sign military cooperation agreement

New Zealand and the Philippines will this week formalise a new agreement to strengthen military cooperation between the two countries, Defence Minister Judith Collins has announced.

Collins is travelling to the Philippines today to sign the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement, which she said highlights the importance New Zealand places on working closely with regional partners.

Dave Patterson: China vs Philippines - Hostilities Persist in the South China Sea

Can the US actually make a difference in this conflict?

While most of the world focuses on the armed conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, tensions are growing in the South China Sea. In what is becoming an almost daily occurrence, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) coast guard cutters harass and collide with Philippine ships attempting to resupply islands Manila holds as sovereign territory. Clashes between the two countries have increased in intensity most recently, and the US could find itself in the middle.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 12/6/24

News of visit by Chinese Premier is belatedly posted on Beehive website – now we await official post of banking inquiry

Let the record show that the PM’s news about China’s Premier visiting New Zealand this week was posted on the government’s website yesterday, after Point of Order had published its June 11 Buzz report.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 19/4/24

On Lee’s watch, Economic Development seems to be stuck on scoring points from promoting sporting events

A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”.

Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew attention to the government website page which records all her statements as Minister of Media and Communications. It was – and still is – blank.

Capitalist: India Is a Land of Opportunity

One of the forgotten wars in history is the Spanish Civil War. It occurred in the mid to late 1930s, and was to some extent the Vietnam of its day; then immediately got overshadowed by World War II and more or less forgotten, as nobody could quite recall what it was all about. In New Zealand, there was a surprising level of discussion about the Spanish Civil War in 1936/37: check the newspaper archives.