# NZ outta northern Afghanistan PRT by end of April 2013



## The Bread Guy (3 Sep 2012)

This from the defence minister's Info-machine:





> Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman today confirmed Cabinet has agreed the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) will be withdrawn from Bamyan province in Afghanistan by the end of April 2013.
> 
> The Ministers say the announcement is the culmination of months of planning and is part of an orderly and sequenced International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) plan for transition.
> 
> ...



ISAF statement says what some aren't:





> .... As New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has made clear, the decision to close the Bamiyan PRT was not prompted by the recent deaths of New Zealand soldiers. He further reiterated that New Zealand will stay committed to a presence at ISAF headquarters and to supporting the Afghan security forces after 2014.



More from the BBC and NZ media here and here, and more on NZ's deployment in AFG here.


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