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ADF Likely to Stay in Afghsnistan for Years says Minister |
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Thursday, 19 February 2009 |
 Australian troops are likely to remain in Afghanistan for years, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon says.
Mr Fitzgibbon was commenting on whether Australia will send more troops to the war-torn nation, after US President Barack Obama approved the deployment of a further 17,000 troops in the coming months.
The Australian government's position hadn't changed, Mr Fitzgibbon said, adding that unless other nations contributed more troops and the government could be persuaded that a boost in Australian troops would help, then it was unlikely to occur.
However, he did say Australia was likely to stay in Afghanistan for years.
"The reality is we are talking years," he told ABC Television on Thursday.
"How many years, we don't know."
Australia has about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan and is the largest non-NATO contributor.
But it has been reluctant to extend its commitment, mindful that many NATO countries are not shouldering their share of the burden in the war effort.
Mr Fitzgibbon said how long Australian troops would stay in Afghanistan depended on the contribution of the other countries.
"Until we have a better idea of that, it's truly difficult to assess how long it will take," he said.
He expected to know more about how much other nations were prepared to put into resources to co-ordinate military, civil and political projects in Afghanistan after Friday's NATO defence ministers' meeting in Poland.
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