Ron Mark meets United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in Washington DC.
Today I met with United States Secretary of Defense Mark Esper in Washington DC.
We discussed the challenges that New Zealand and the United States share in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as the more recent global security events in the Middle East.
The United States is one of our closest defence and security partners, and we highly value our relationship.
Productive day at the United Nations, hosted by the excellent team at the NZ Permanent Mission to the UN.
We met with senior UN officials responsible for diplomacy and peacekeeping operations - emphasising the value NZ adds on missions in some of the harshest environments, and sharing our perspectives on the challenges facing the UN around the world.
Today in Ottawa I met with my counterpart and friend, Canadian Minister of National Defence Harjit Sajjan.
New Zealand and Canada are close partners, sharing the same views on many issues, and we had an excellent meeting that covered some of our common security, defence, and multilateral interests
I also met with my Canadian Veterans counterpart, the Minister of Veterans Affairs Lawrence MacAuley.
Our veterans face similar challenges, and we had a great discussion and shared ideas on the work being done in New Zealand and Canada to better support our veterans and their families.
