The pre-departure test requirement to enter New Zealand was reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours before travel. New Zealand also said the length of stay in state quarantine facilities would be increased from a week to 10 days. The measures were a precaution as it was still unclear how sick omicron makes people and the impact it had on health systems was not yet fully understood, he said. “There’s no doubt this is disappointing and will upset many holiday plans, but it’s important to set these changes out clearly today so they can have time to consider those plans.” “All of the evidence so far points to omicron being the most transmissible COVID-19 variant yet. 16, would be pushed back until the end of February, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at a press conference in Wellington. Non-quarantine travel, which was to have opened for New Zealanders in Australia from Jan. The South Pacific nation had just started easing some of the world’s toughest pandemic measures and its international border restrictions were to progressively loosen from January, with all foreign tourists allowed into the country from April. WELLINGTON: New Zealand on Tuesday postponed its phased border re-opening plans until the end of February over concerns of the rapid global spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. The two-decade-long war cost the lives of over 240,000 Afghans, 2,300 US troops, more than 400 British soldiers and hundreds more from other NATO countries. “I think it’s highly likely that we’ll see a return of Al-Qaeda and an increasing threat coming from Afghanistan.” For many soldiers, that’s very important,” he added. Al-Qaeda didn’t mount … a terrorist attack on the United Kingdom or her allies from Afghanistan. “We bought counterterrorism success for 20 years. What we discovered is it didn’t work … There are a lot of searching questions there for all of us.”ĭespite the later failures, Wallace said the initial goal of the invasion - to dismantle Al-Qaeda and end Taliban rule of Afghanistan - was a success.
“When that’s withdrawn, that’s when you find out whether your political campaign has worked. The military were there to put in place the security environment in order to try and deliver that,” he said. “NATO were there to enable a political campaign, and I think that’s what failed. He added that the rapid collapse of Afghan resistance against the Taliban was partly the result of NATO’s failure to effectively overhaul the country’s political system. We always had a military advantage until we started reducing (troop numbers).” Our resolve was found wanting is what I’d say, rather than defeated. He also said it would have been “reasonable” to expect Afghan government forces to hold out against Taliban advances for longer than they did.Īsked by MPs whether NATO forces had been defeated in the country, Wallace said: “I don’t think we were defeated. Speaking in front of a parliamentary defense committee examining the events in Afghanistan leading up to and since the NATO withdrawal, Ben Wallace told MPs that the alliance’s forces could have stayed in the country but lacked the “resolve” to do so. LONDON: NATO’s political campaign in Afghanistan was a failure but Western troops were not defeated in battle by the Taliban, the UK’s defense secretary has said.