UK holds up NZ up as worthy Afghanistan example

One of the first issues the Government will deal with this year is whether to extend the term of the 70 Special Air Service staff in Kabul. Photo / AP

British Defence Secretary Liam Fox yesterday put the boot into some bigger countries for not fully pulling their weight in the international force in Afghanistan - especially when compared with New Zealand.

Dr Fox was speaking at a press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague in Auckland yesterday.

He implied that the countries he was talking about were in Europe, though he did not name them.

One of the first issues the Government will deal with this year is whether to extend the term of the 70 Special Air Service staff in Kabul as it has requested and the phased replacement of the provincial reconstruction team in Bamyan to a civilian development force.

Dr Fox and Britain's highest ranking military man, General Sir David Richards, visited the SAS base in Papakura yesterday with Defence Minister Wayne Mapp.

Asked if he thought New Zealand's commitment was strong enough, Dr Fox said: "I'm afraid if you are looking for criticism you might be disappointed.

"I would say that we should be holding this country up as an example to many of the sleeping giants ... who have greater capability and greater budgets, that they should be showing the level of commitment that is being showed by this country.

"I'd like to see more from those countries who are not fully pulling their weight and there are a number of them and those countries who have greater assets, who have greater military budgets who are not fully engaged in the way that we need to have an international community doing."

He said there were plenty of countries on that list "before you remotely get to New Zealand".

Asked if they were in Europe he said "that would be an intuitive guess".

The ministers agreed with Dr Mapp and Foreign Minister Murray McCully to have formal annual talks - as they did in their visit to Australia.