WELLINGTON, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Troops from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are to join a New Zealand-led military exercise that carries out development and humanitarian work in Pacific island nations for the first time this year, a New Zealand defense official said Friday.
The PLA is deploying seven personnel in Exercise Tropic Twilight, a six-week drill that will this year upgrade vital public infrastructure in the outlying atolls of the Cook Islands, a New Zealand Defense Force (NZDF) spokesperson said in an exclusive statement to Xinhua.
The PLA personnel would work alongside around 40 engineers, plumbers, carpenters and electricians from the New Zealand Army's 2 Engineer Regiment, as well as 10 engineers from the United States Army and two engineers from the British Army.
The military personnel would refurbish public buildings, including schools and clinics, in the northern atolls of Manihiki and Penrhyn.
On Penrhyn, they would also relocate the fuel depot, which is used to refuel the Cook Islands Police patrol boat Te Kukupa.
The depot was a critical piece of infrastructure to support Te Kukupa's policing operations in the key northern Cook Islands fishery.
Tropic Twilight is a regular joint exercise in the Pacific, involving the NZDF and New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, that aims to practice the NZDF's capability to work alongside militaries from partner-nations in providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the Southwest Pacific.
This year's exercise would take place from Aug. 31 to Oct. 12.
"The strength of the Tropic Twilight exercise is that it gives the NZDF an opportunity to practice deploying in the Pacific, while also carrying out a range of development activities funded through our aid program," Foreign Minister Murray McCully said in a statement.
