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Australia committed to Afghan mission: Gillard

Dunya News

Australian PM Julia Gillard Tuesday said Canberra was committed to its mission in Afghanistan.

Gillard said Australias timetable for a 2014 pull-out has been laid out clearly, and has not changed, according to the ABC news report.We are in transition now. Thats a process that will take 12 to 18 months, she said, adding what transition means is we are increasingly handing security leadership over to local Afghan forces, and we will see that mission through.Gillard said Australias involvement in Afghanistan had been worthwhile despite the deaths of its 38 soldiers.We went there for the right reason. We are acquitting an important mission in our national interest, she said.Every life lost hits us hard. Its a tragedy for our nation and particularly a tragedy for the families who lose loved ones.Ive looked in peoples eyes at those funerals, Ive seen them wipe the tears away.Im not, you know, in any denial about the cost.Ive felt it. But, for our nation, in our national interest, it was right to go and its right to stay there to get the job done.Thats a tough call, but its the call Ive made and the Governments made and its the right call.New Zealand has confirmed its troops will end a decade- long deployment in Afghanistans Bamiyan province at the end of April next year, five months earlier than originally planned.The announcement came after five New Zealand soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in less than three weeks.New Zealands Prime Minister John Key said planning for the earlier withdrawal began before those deaths, explaining that New Zealand needed to remove its planes before a planned upgrade of the Bamiyan airport.