Australia on Friday extended its military mission in Afghanistan by six months to mid-2017 and potentially longer as the troubled nation battles a resurgent Taliban.
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Mr Fallon did not give any details of how many troops would be deployed or where they would be sent.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that only 8,400 USA troops would remain in Afghanistan by January 2017 – more than the force of 5,500 men and women the president had originally determined would stay in Afghanistan, but a 15 percent cut in current troop levels.
Australia’s troops are based in the capital Kabul, where they support the Afghan National Army Officer Academy.
The worldwide contribution to Afghanistan is under discussion at the NATO Leaders Summit under way in Warsaw.
Australia has pledged extra $300 million in a bid to help develop the Afghan National Defense and Security Force (ANDSF).
The government has long indicated Australia would follow the USA in continuing to support Afghanistan, which is facing a growing threat from the Taliban and Islamic State insurgents.
“We’re going to achieve those reductions by moving some capabilities out that can be conducted over the horizon – that don’t necessarily need to be done in Afghanistan – to support the force”, he said, without elaborating. “But there’s no denying the progress that we’ve made and the change that – the relationship between the United States and Afghanistan that we have seen as a result of the decisions made by President Obama over the last eight years”, he said even as he strongly denied that the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated. “There is a much more effective Afghan security force, both in terms of law enforcement and military, that are doing a better job of securing the country”, Mr Earnest said. Forty-one Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan.
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The ANA Trust Fund was founded in 2007 to provide an accountable mechanism for worldwide funding of Afghanistan’s rapidly expanding army, something still beyond the resources of the Afghan government.
