Hon Gerry Brownlee
Minister of Defence

22 October 2016
Media Statement
Minister to attend Counter-Daesh meeting in Paris

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee leaves today to attend the Counter-Daesh Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Paris.

The meeting is being hosted by French Minister of Defence Jean-Yves Le Drian and United States Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on October 25.

“As we have seen recently, Daesh continues to pose a significant threat not only to the citizens of Iraq and Syria but also the wider world,” Mr Brownlee says.

“These meetings provide an important opportunity to engage with other partners involved in the global coalition to counter the threat posed by Daesh.

“We will discuss the progress being made across all the coalition lines of effort, including supporting the commencement of the campaign to liberate Mosul and efforts to destroy Daesh’s external operations,” Mr Brownlee says.

New Zealand has around 100 troops alongside 300 Australians undertaking a Building Partner Capacity training mission at Taji Military Base near Baghdad.

New Zealand’s commitment to this mission was recently extended until November 2018 and the government has agreed, in principle, to training stabilisation forces required to ensure law and order in Iraqi towns, cities and territories won back from Daesh.

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