Overview: New Zealand continued working cooperatively with the United States and other countries on bilateral, regional, and global levels to fight terrorism, including nuclear terrorism. New Zealand particularly took an active leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region in multilateral counterterrorism organizations. New Zealand focused a great deal of effort on helping build the capacity of small pacific island countries in all areas of counterterrorism and actively contributed to international efforts to counter the radicalization of Islam and violent extremism.

Countering Terrorist Finance: New Zealand is not a major regional or offshore financial center and was a low threat environment for terrorist finance. Under the Financial Transaction Reporting Act 1996, financial institutions were required to report transactions suspected of being linked to money-laundering to the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). In 2010, the FIU received approximately 3,040 Suspicious Transaction Reports.

In February 2010, New Zealand announced its first designations of non-UN listed terrorist entities; 14 non-UN listed entities were designated. All designated terrorist entities are subject to criminal sanctions under New Zealand law and those prosecutions based on non-UN lists are subject to court challenge.

New Zealand provided funding for the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering's 2010 technical assistance and training program with Pacific Island countries.

Regional and International Cooperation: New Zealand actively worked in the Asia-Pacific region on counterterrorism issues and demonstrated a strong commitment to building the counterterrorism capabilities of the small island states of the Pacific region, in particular, legislative and operational capacity building projects.

On November 16-18, New Zealand and the United States co-hosted the Trans-Pacific Symposium on Dismantling Transnational Illicit Networks in Christchurch. Over one hundred officials from 23 Pacific Rim economies and several international organizations participated. The event brought together law enforcement, customs, and other agencies from around the Pacific basin to discuss how to best counter transnational illicit activity, including terrorist-related threats. The event concluded with the Co-Chairs' Summary of Outcomes document in which participants agreed to increase cooperation in the region.

On March 29-30, New Zealand hosted the Second ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) inter-session meeting on maritime security in Auckland. New Zealand, Indonesia, and Japan jointly chaired the meeting, which included 150 delegates representing the 26 member nations of the ARF with the exception of North Korea.

New Zealand continued its active contribution to the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) with a particular focus on supporting GICNT activities in the Asia-Pacific region and working with GICNT partners to develop a "model GICNT tabletop exercise".

Countering Radicalization and Violent Extremism: The Government of New Zealand continued its funding of counter-radicalization work in Southeast Asia out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Asia Security Fund. Most of New Zealand's funding went to cross-cultural and interfaith projects focused on youth, media, and education. The government also contributed to the development of 'Know Your Neighbors,' a regional education resource aimed at high school students in Southeast Asia and Australasia that sought to build greater understanding and respect of different cultures and religions, thereby helping to bridge some of the divides between societies around the region.

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