War games for NZ, US troops

5:00AM Thursday August 21, 2008 By Audrey Young The United States' thaw in relations with New Zealand moved significantly yesterday with the announcement that a large contingent of Kiwi troops will exercise with US troops in Europe next month. A total of 172 New Zealand troops will join US, British, Australian and Canadian troops in an exercise code-named Exercise Co-operative Spirit, in Hohenfels, Germany, involving peace-keeping and combat exercises. Defence Minister Phil Goff last night described it as "the exercise of common sense over perhaps a more ideological position earlier on that because we disagreed on the nuclear issue, then we couldn't do anything together". But he also said next month's exercise was part of the "continuum" of evolving change in the relationship. That has been very apparent in the second term of... [read full story]