New Zealand will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan

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New Zealand will withdraw its last troops from Afghanistan by May. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this on Wednesday, according to the AFP agency.

Ardern said, after twenty years of the presence of our NZDF forces in Afghanistan, now is the time to end the deployment. The prime minister also paid tribute to the ten New Zealanders who died during the mission, and said she had discussed the decision with key partners.

Since 2001, about 3,500 New Zealand troops have served in Afghanistan. In recent years, however, Wellington has reduced the number of military personnel in the Asian country to the current six. Three of them work at the Afghan Academy for Officers and three at NATO Headquarters.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday that the North Atlantic Alliance would withdraw from Afghanistan when the time came. The future of NATO's mission, which numbers approximately 9,600 troops, is to be discussed today and tomorrow by the Alliance's defense ministers.

Washington signed an agreement with the Taliban last year in which it pledged to withdraw all its forces in exchange for security guarantees. However, the Doha Biden administration is now reviewing the Doha agreement in the context of an increase in attacks in Afghanistan.