WELLINGTON, June 20 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand will extend its deployment in Iraq to the joint New Zealand-Australia mission to train Iraqi Security Forces until November 2018 and to expand to a second military base, Prime Minister John Key said Monday.
The New Zealand government agreed to extend the mission, which had been set to finish early next year. It also agreed an amendment to the mission's mandate to allow small numbers of training and force protection team to travel from current Taji Military Base to Besmaya military base, a training location about 52 kilometers southeast of Taji.
The 105 military trainers from New Zealand would remain "behind the wire," Key said. While he could not rule out a further extension to the deployment beyond November 2018, Key said that he did not want the New Zealand Defence Force to be in Iraq "forever."
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said that the New Zealand government had also agreed to provide training to stabilization forces, such as the Iraqi Federal Police, in addition to the Iraqi Army. The New Zealand Defence Force will ensure a smooth handover of the Iraqi soldiers who have been training at Taji to other coalition trainers, who will be teaching them to use heavy weapons."
New Zealand trainers' work with Iraqi troops was having a "tangible effect" on the local forces' ability to take and hold ground from the Islamic State, Brownlee said. "So it makes sense to continue doing something that adds value to the likelihood of Iraqi peace and security in the future, and to amend our mission to meet the changing environment in Iraq."
To date, around 7,000 Iraqi Security Force personnel have been trained by the Australia-New Zealand mission at Taji, including around 975 officers who have graduated from four junior leadership courses. The new decisions will not change the number of troops deployed to Iraq, with up to 143 troops mandated for the mission. At present around 105 NZDF personnel and some 300 Australian Defence Force troops are deployed to Iraq's Camp Taji.
At the day, New Zealand Foreign Murray McCully said the country will make a 1.4 million NZ dollars (1 million U.S. dollars) contribution to help communities damaged by continued fighting in Iraq. The money will go to the United Nations Development Programme.
