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No extra troops for Afghanistan, says Australia

SINGAPORE: Australia has ruled out sending additional troops to bolster its presence in Afghanistan. Emphasising this, following the move by the United States to raise its deployment there, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said on Monday that “strategically and tactically, the numbers … more than 1,000 troops … we have there [now] are about right.”

In an interview, Mr. Fitzgibbon said: “We have had no approach from the U.S., for example, to increase our troop commitments.”

Noting that the ongoing anti-terror operations in Afghanistan were primarily a mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, he said “we are the largest non-NATO contributor, and the ninth or tenth largest contributor overall.” In such a situation, Australia had “no intention of doing more in Afghanistan, while so many NATO countries remain so under-committed.”

Indeed, the U.S. and other NATO countries were “very appreciative” of the Australian effort. “We are punching above our weight,’ Mr. Fitzgibbon said. “When we were concurrently in Iraq, Afghanistan, and East Timor, we had about 2,500 troops [in all] on the ground, and we were overstretched then.”

In another development, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced additional aid towards the consolidation of an electoral process in Afghanistan.

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