Australia and New Zealand have launched a new platform to increase defence co-operation and streamline military operations between the two nations.
Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith and his New Zealand counterpart, Jonathan Coleman, announced the Australia-New Zealand Defence Relationship Framework, which builds on the Anzac tradition of trans-Tasman military collaboration.
The framework includes closer co-operation to develop and buy military hardware and services and to share the defence burden in the region.
It follows a review last year to shape future strategic cooperation and set priorities for the defence relationship.
Under the new framework, both nations will have regular discussions on strategy between senior civilian and military personnel.
This will lead to a more orderly, rigorous and comprehensive method to set policy, military capabilities and defence activities.
''The improved senior dialogue framework and the new 1.5 track security dialogue will enhance understanding of the mutual security challenges facing Australia and New Zealand, particularly in our immediate region,'' Mr Smith said yesterday.
Dr Coleman said the two nations had to work more cooperatively on defence services.
''In a more complex and expensive strategic operating environment, New Zealand and Australia have to find ways of working more closely together, so that we complement each other's effectiveness,'' he said.
A new memorandum of arrangement on cooperation in the fields of defence research and development was also signed by the Defence ministers.
This will include collaborative research in future naval helicopters and counter-improvised explosive device measures.
The ministers also discussed issues of mutual interest, such as joint operations serving in East Timor and the Solomon Islands, and commitments to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.
The meeting between the two Defence ministers was held in conjunction with the annual Australia-New Zealand leaders' meeting in Melbourne yesterday.
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