NZ asked to add two to Afghan unit

A decision on whether to send more Kiwi troops to Afghanistan at the request of the United States will be made in a matter of weeks.

Prime Minister Bill English confirmed at his weekly media briefing yesterday that the US on behalf of Nato (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) has asked that New Zealand send an additional two personnel – taking the total team to 12 in the region.

The 10 troops in Afghanistan are based in Kabul at the Afghan National Army Officer Academy but English was unsure where the other two were being requested for.

‘‘As we’ve said for some time, we’ll consider such requests. We want to pull our weight as an international contributor in parts of the world that generate instability that can affect us and our citizens.

‘‘We’ll consider the request but we haven’t done anything further than that yet.’’

English couldn’t say why only two were being requested but said regardless of whether it was ‘‘two or twenty-two’’ the request would be taken seriously and be based on ‘‘proper advice’’.

‘‘I understand a number of other countries have already made decisions to deploy more.

‘‘It looks like nobody’s planning to leave Afghanistan in a hurry but as part of the official advice we’d want a briefing on the context in Afghanistan and get an update really about what’s going on there,’’ he said.

Any involvement by the extra troops would likely be consistent with ‘‘decisions Cabinet originally made’’ which were based around ‘‘support and logistics and some intelligence’’.

English was only briefed about the request yesterday but said a decision would be made in a ‘‘matter of weeks’’.

He didn’t plan to consult the Labour Party – despite it being only months out from an election – saying, ‘‘I wouldn’t feel compelled to do that, particularly if it’s not a significant deployment’’.

The suggestion English might have expected the request under a Trump administration was dismissed yesterday.

‘‘We didn’t really have any particular expectation. Bear in mind this is a Nato operation – so the request is basically on behalf of Nato – that’s the context in which we’d make a contribution,’’ English said.

There’s speculation President Donald Trump is considering increasing US support in Afghanistan by up to 5000 troops, and that some European countries are feeling vulnerable after Trump failed to throw his full support behind Nato’s common defence provision at a meeting last week.

English said that’s a conversation for those ‘‘friends and allies’’ involved with Nato looking to address defence in Europe.

‘‘Afghanistan, from our point of view, is somewhere we contribute to that’s not part of the broader considerations of the US having a discussion with the European Union.

‘‘We’ve kept our involvement in Afghanistan relatively limited – consistent with the political discussion here in New Zealand,’’ English said.

‘‘We’ve got a small commitment but we want to play our part, just as our commitment in Iraq is a lot smaller than Australia’s, for instance.’’

New Zealand previously ran a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Bamiyan province until 2013 and has had two deployments to Afghanistan – the last one finishing in 2012.