Defence personnel get extended deployments

The government has extended deployments for more than 100 defence personnel, plus boats and aircraft crew, in multinational monitoring in the Middle East and Korea.

The two-year extension covers five operations, including in fraught waters not far from Iran.

Fourteen personnel will carry on with maritime work to counter terrorism, piracy, smuggling and illegal fishing until 2028.

Another operation that has been extended is with the UN's truce supervision unit monitoring regional ceasefires in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Thirty-six personnel will carry on with that or in an observer force on the Sinai Peninsula.

A further 51 were in Korea, while others by sea and air monitored sanctions on North Korea. Both of these were extended too.

"As the global security situation continues to deteriorate, we are committed to continuing our longstanding efforts to promote stability in our region and beyond because New Zealand's prosperity relies on our success," Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement on Tuesday.

The deployments extended back as far as 1954 in the Middle East.

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