Rear Admiral Darren Grogan, Deputy Chief of the Royal Australian Navy, signed the plan with Commodore Karl Woodhead, Deputy Chief of the Royal New Zealand Navy. It covers personnel, training, warfighting, engineering, regulation, capability development and international engagement.
The framework is designed to increase information sharing and align training and operational activity between the two services. It reflects both countries’ aim to deepen defence ties in response to a more complex regional security environment.
“Plan Tasman builds on generations of cooperation between our navies and provides a practical framework to strengthen the way we train, operate and develop capability together,” Rear Admiral Grogan said. “As close neighbours, trusted partners and allies, this agreement will help ensure our navies remain ready to operate side-by-side and respond to shared challenges in support of regional security, stability and prosperity.”
The agreement builds on a maritime relationship that has developed over more than 160 years of wartime and peacetime cooperation. “Our maritime relationship was established more than 160 years ago, strengthened over generations in times of both war and peacetime cooperation,” Commodore Woodhead said.
Commodore Woodhead said: “As our region becomes increasingly contested against the backdrop of a deteriorating global security environment, our strategic guidance is to deepen and formalise the alliance.” He added: “Plan Tasman is exactly that, signalling a shift from a history of cooperation based on tradition to integration by design.”
Plan Tasman supports Australia and New Zealand’s commitment to closer defence relations and increasingly integrated naval cooperation. The framework is intended to help both navies respond jointly to shared challenges and support a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
