Nato’s boss praises NZ help

Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has praised New Zealand's contribution to security and reconstruction in Afghanistan but there is no commitment yet to expanding the Kiwi contribution beyond September 2006.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday after talks with Mr de Hoop Scheffer that New Zealand had only committed the 120-strong Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), which is serving in Bamyan province, until then.

She said after elections in September in Afghanistan, New Zealand needed to start talking to partners like Nato about what might happen next politically.

"Later this year when the parliamentary elections are held in Afghanistan, the Bonn process will have run its course.

"We need to start talking with our partners in Nato, in the Afghanistan Government itself, about what is the post-Bonn process."

The Bonn accord established a transitional phase after the Taleban regime was ousted in 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the United States.

Mr de Hoop Scheffer, the first Nato secretary-general to visit New Zealand, said he had not asked for a longer-term commitment from New Zealand to keep its PRT in Afghanistan.

But they had discussed what needed to be done politically.

He said once the Bonn process formally ended a new framework was needed.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai considered the PRT concept an excellent one, he said.

"Every time I come there, and that's quite often, he asks me for more PRTs because the Afghan people are heavily supporting the PRTs."

Mr de Hoop Scheffer said New Zealand had been a staunch supporter of peacekeeping operations run by Nato.

As well as discussing Afghanistan, the pair talked about the Pacific region and terrorism.

"I asked the Prime Minister about this region, which is far away from Nato, but nevertheless terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, fragile and failed states are everywhere, so New Zealand and Nato have a lot in common."

Mr de Hoop Scheffer will address the Victoria University Institute of Policy Studies and the Institute of International Affairs tomorrow before leaving.

Nato's chief

Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

* Born April 1948 in Amsterdam.
* Served in Netherlands military before being employed in the foreign service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
* Took up Nato job in January 2004.