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NEW DELHI: Sharing India's doubts over Chinese claims that forays by its submarines and ships in Indian Ocean were purely part for anti-piracy operations, the New Zealand navy chief on Wednesday said China could be "trying to make sure" that they can indeed go beyond its waters.
Rear Admiral Jack Raymond Steer, chief of New Zealand navy, also welcomed US' rebalancing of its naval assets to Asia-Pacific region.
"The Chinese will always say one thing and other people will have a different view. The fact that China has been contributing for many years to anti-piracy group is a good thing because more nations contribute, the better it is," Steer said.
Talking about the Chinese deployment of "submarines and other ships" into Indian Ocean, he told PTI in an interview that "one view could be that China is trying to teach themselves, trying to make sure that they can actually do this because for a long time, they have not gone very far away from mainland China. What is the actual underline thinking, I don't know".
Interestingly, China's recent assertive white paper on defence talks about enhancing its naval reach for the first time to "open seas protection" far from its shores.
Asked about China's ongoing dispute in South China Sea with other countries in the region, the New Zealand Navy chief said his country does not take a position on who is right and wrong.
WELLINGTON: All of New Zealand's international and domestic flights were grounded Tuesday after authorities reported that the nationwide radar system had failed.
Wellington: India's New Zealand ambassador, Ravi Thapar is returning back to the Nation (India) after his wife has been accused of assaulting her home staff member.
The alleged victim is said to be a chef, who walked 20 kms from the High Commission to Wellington and eventually was found in agony by a local.
However, the Indian envoy is denying the allegation of returning back to India to escape the situation and the accusation over his wife as well. Rather, he claims that the reason behind his return to the Nation is that he wants to be will his mother, following his father’s death last year.
“I’m going but to take care of my mum because my dad passed away last year. I can’t keep up 13,000 km away just talking to her on the phone.” he says.
Following the same, a spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry, Vikas Swarup says, “Though no charges were pressed by the service staff member, the Ministry will investigate the matter further. The High Commissioner has been posted back to headquarters.”
“The External Affairs ministry is seized of this matter. It was first brought to the notice of the ministry on May 10, 2015 when one of the service staff members of the high commission in New Zealand was found missing.” he adds.
As per the police officials, the chef has claimed that he has been physically assaulted by the Ravi's wife, Sharmila Thapar and also he was treated as a 'slave'. However, he fears to file a formal complaint.
A team has been sent overseas for further investigation.
The alleged victim has returned back to India.
Thapar has been serving in New Zealand since December 2013.
A replay of the Devyani Khobragade episode was on the cards, but for the negotiating skills of a team of ministry of external affairs officials, sent to Wellington to broker a deal with Thapar's cook. The cook finally agreed not to press charges in return for a safe passage back home.
With the cook agreeing not to press charges further, New Zealand authorities suggested that the envoy's repatriation might be the best way out, as they were not impressed with Indian arguments that Sharmila was innocent.
It took a month of hectic back-channel negotiations to settle the case quietly and diplomatically without a public investigation, senior officials said.
There has been an increase of 67 per cent in the number of Indian students enrolling in universities in New Zealand in the last financial year, High Commissioner of New Zealand to India, Grahame Morton said here today.
"New Zealand has emerged as a new destination for Indian students who want to study abroad and over 20,000 Indians studied at New Zealand campuses in 2014, an increase of 67 per cent than the earlier year" Morton said.
India’s next High Commissioner Designate to New Zealand Sanjiv Kohli is keen to engage with the host government and the Indian Diaspora to lift India-New Zealand relations to the next higher level.
Speaking to Indian Newslink on Tuesday from his office in New Delhi, he said that there were promising prospects for more constructive engagement between the two countries.
“There are several exciting opportunities for cooperation and involvement which will be mutually beneficial for people of India and New Zealand. Our government is working with the New Zealand government to promote better understanding and working relationship. I look forward to improved relations in political, economic, educational, technological and other areas,” he said.
A FORMER Gisborne father and son aviation team will take specialist techniques perfected on the East Coast to help keep India’s national electricity grid running smoothly.
Their helicopter company has been awarded a new lines maintenance contract on the sub-continent.
Ohope-based company Heliwing announced it has secured a contract with PowerGrid India for live-line electrical maintenance by helicopter.
Managing director and former East Coast rescue and air ambulance pilot Denis Hartley said he was delighted Heliwing’s expertise had been recognised against some very strong global competition.
“It is a real coup for New Zealand aviation and I am very pleased to have my son Wayne (from Gisborne) and New Zealand pilot Geoff Keighley as part of our team to undertake the work.
“As the helicopters need sometimes to precision-hover less than a metre from 750,000 live volts, I can only use highly experienced pilots”.
Mr Hartley is well well-known in the New Zealand aviation industry, having been a top-dressing pilot in Hawke’s Bay as well as a helicopter pilot in Poverty Bay and the Eastern Bay of Plenty. He was also a pioneering East Coast rescue and air ambulance pilot.
Mr Hartley said the new contract would involve employing a human-sling line technique to maintain power lines from a helicopter, a technique he first used in 1980 when he was based at Ruatoria, working for Gisborne lines company Eastland Network.
He expects to start work maintaining 3000km of power lines in about three months.
New Zealand is marking a divisive anniversary - 250 years since the British explorer Captain James Cook set foot in the country.
Cook and his crew of the HMS Endeavour came to shore at Gisborne on 8 October 1769 ushering in colonial rule.
But New Zealand - or Aotearoa in Maori - had been populated by the Maori people for several hundred years.
Some say this milestone should not be celebrated as it had a detrimental impact on the Maori community.
Last week British High Commissioner Laura Clarke delivered a statement of regret to local tribes - known as iwi - over the death of nine indigenous people during the first meeting between Cook and the Maori. But she stopped short of issuing an apology.
Though James Cook's exploration of New Zealand dominates history books, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman was the first European to catch sight of it, in 1642.
Maori people from Polynesian islands are believed to have arrived in New Zealand hundreds of years prior to the first Europeans.
When James Cook arrived on the Turanganui River, what is now Gisborne, the first encounter between his crew and the Maori inhabitants was deadly.
A leader of the Ngati Oneone group was immediately shot and killed after what is believed to be a misunderstanding over a ceremonial challenge. At least eight other Maori were killed.
Despite the statement of regret, many Maori rights advocates say not enough has been down to acknowledge what happened in those first few days of Cook's arrival.
"It's a commemoration or an anniversary of invasion and imperial expansion," said Tina Ngata, an indigenous rights advocate who has been leading the opposition to the commemoration events.
Protesters also say their Maori ancestors were treated unfairly during the colonial era and that today, Maori communities face disproportionate levels of poverty, crime and discrimination as a result.
In Gisborne, a statue of Cook has been repeatedly defaced with graffiti and is to be replaced.