Plan for Singapore to base F-15SGs in New Zealand has stalled

New Zealand’s Politik has reported that Singapore’s plan to bed down some F-15SGs in New Zealand has run into a road block.

F-15SG Cope Tiger 2012
By Alert5 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons


According to the article by Richard Harman, relationships between both countries deteriorated after the new Labour government “introduced the Overseas Investment Bill limiting the ability of foreigners to buy urban land.”

A Singapore property developer – CDL – is affected by the new legislation.

Defence Minister Ron Mark was quoted as telling the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee recently that the opportunity for Singapore to train its pilots in New Zealand “doesn’t come without an impact on (New Zealand’s) defence force just simply chewing up real estate for a start; the pressure on infrastructure, there is a whole range of issues that (New Zealand) have looked at.”

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