Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said that the government is not planning to send more combat troops to Afghanistan.
Sydney, Feb.10 : Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has said that the government is not planning to send more combat troops to Afghanistan.
According to The Age, there are about 1,000 Australian soldiers currently serving in the conflict-ravaged country, performing dangerous work.
"We currently don't have in contemplation any increase of the numbers that we have," the paper quoted Smith as telling ABC TV today.
"They're in southern Afghanistan doing a lot of the heavy-duty and difficult and dangerous work so we don't have an increase of our combat troops in contemplation at this time," he added.
"We believe there needs to be a much more robust international community commitment to the work in Afghanistan - that starts with NATO countries but it needs to be wider than that," the minister said.
"We also very strongly have the view that it can't just be a question of security or military arrangements - we also need to be looking to the nation-building, capacity-building arrangements. That would include more humanitarian and aid work, he said.
ANI