Deployment extended while decision up in air

The Government has opted for a three-month extension on whether to continue to keep troops in Afghanistan, rather than a one year rollover of the deployment.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the mandate for whether to continue in Afghanistan needed a decision by the end of the month but that has now been extended to September 30.

This allows the Government to make a decision alongside other troop deployments in the region, in particular Iraq.

A decision there is due in November, but Ardern said yesterday that the ‘‘expectation is that a decision will be made some time before that’’.

Extending deployments are notoriously tough decisions for governments as they weigh public support with the expectations of political allies.

It’s likely these pending decisions will be further compounded by the dynamics of a coalition government given Labour, NZ First and the Greens all have different

views on the merits of keeping troops overseas.

There are 11 personnel deployed as trainers in Afghanistan – the previous National-led government agreed in 2016 to extend the New Zealand Defence Force’s deployment there until the middle of this year.

At this stage, Ardern didn’t expect an extension for making a decision on the Iraq mandate would be needed.

‘‘What is particularly relevant for Iraq is we don’t currently have a settled political environment, we’re still waiting the outcome of the election. There’s still a number of things to factor in but at this stage Cabinet hasn’t discussed the need to extend that mandate for decision-making purposes.’’

Parliamentary elections were held in Iraq on May 12 but the Iraqi Parliament ordered a manual recount last week.

The situation has been further complicated by a fire at Iraq’s biggest ballot paper storage depot.

Ardern said the domestic focus in Iraq was around an election result and all international eyes were on that as well.

‘‘Of course we’re always considering where we have our people deployed generally,’’ she said.

‘‘It’s particularly important, I think, within that regional context, to have a bit of a think around our deployments within a region and the political environment that exists.’’

Another deployment to be considered is in Sinai, where Kiwi troops have been since 1982.

The current mandate was due to expire in July but, in May, Defence Minister Ron Mark said no Cabinet decision had been made.

However, New Zealand would be unlikely to withdraw all personnel suddenly, he said.

‘‘It’s particularly important . . . to have a bit of a think around . . . the political environment that exists.’’ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern