New Zealand troops in Afghanistan may be able to come home sooner after a weekend summit where Western leaders approved plans for Afghans to move into the lead role in fighting the Taliban and its allies by the end of 2014.Foreign Minister Murray McCully
New Zealand troops in Afghanistan may be able to come home sooner after a weekend summit where Western leaders approved plans for Afghans to move into the lead role in fighting the Taliban and its allies by the end of 2014.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully attended the meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. Prime Minister John Key said he had not yet had an update from Mr McCully.
The Government is yet to decide whether to bring home the 70-strong NZ SAS deployment working with Afghanistan's Crisis Response Unit (CRU) in Kabul or let a smaller unit remain. However there are plans to start winding down the about 140-strong Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan from September next year.
"The most recent info that I saw before he (Mr McCully) went to Lisbon was that Bamiyan remains right at the top of the list as a province that can be handed to Afghan control so that process of passing over control is a high priority," Mr Key said.
He could not rule in or out an earlier withdrawal.
"We've always been working on a hand-over period... our major issue in Bamiyan has always been balancing that desire to pass over full control and to be able to leave Bamiyan but not do so in such a way that undermined all the great efforts of the people who have worked there for such a long time."
However he said the signs were "encouraging".
The team has been rotating in Bamiyan since 2003.
