Asia/Pacific

New Zealand on Monday said it will accelerate its timeline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan but denied that the decision had anything to do with recent casualties.

John Key, New Zealand’s prime minister, said his country would be withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan earlier than planned. Rather than leaving by October 2013, New Zealand’s troops could be headed home as early as April, he said.

Key said the decision was not made in response to combat deaths, and stressed that New Zealand would reach an agreement on the timing of the withdrawal with the U.S.-led coalition.

The Defense secretary said Pakistan’s military will begin combat operations against the Taliban in the "near future."

Taiwan is asking the United States for fewer new F-16 fighters due to budget concerns, according to media reports.

Taiwan is cutting its previous request to Washington for 66 F-16C/D fighters to just 24 of the advanced F-16 planes, according to Agence France-Presse, citing media reports in two Taiwanese newspapers on Monday.

The Taiwanese defense ministry dismissed the reports in the Taipei-based China Times, which quoted an “authoritative military source,” and The Liberty Times, according to AFP.

The Obama administration last year agreed to a $5.9 billion deal to retrofit Taiwan’s current fleet of 145 F-16A/B planes, rather than selling Taiwan new F-16C/Ds, which are more advanced than the F-16A/Bs Taiwan currently operates.

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Senior U.S. and Pakistani military leaders are reportedly formulating a new joint border security strategy to help curb deadly attacks by Pakistani-based terror groups on American and coalition forces inside Afghanistan. 

The Pentagon will begin flying unmanned surveillance missions over the Diaoyutai Islands, off the coastlines of Japan, China and Taiwan.

The top two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are demanding the Obama administration provide answers on the full national security impact of illegal ties between a US defense firm and the Chinese military. 

The attacks on civilian and military targets in central and eastern Afghanistan Tuesday left 10 people dead and dozens wounded.

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A tranche of American hybrid airplane-helicopters won’t be buzzing over the skies of Japan anytime soon.

The Senate approved a new ambassador to Afghanistan and nine more of President Obama's nominees before heading out for the summer recess Thursday evening. 

James Cunningham, the current deputy ambassador in Kabul, replaces Ryan Crocker, who is stepping down after serving just one year, citing health reasons. The Senate also approved new ambassadors to Ghana, Liberia, the Marshall Islands, Zimbabwe, Oman, Guinea, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Serbia.

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, welcomed the appointment in a statement Friday.

The U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen made his first visit to Pakistan on Thursday since Islamabad re-opened the NATO supply route into Afghanistan last month.

Allen met with the Pakistan Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, where Allen said they made “significant progress toward improving the U.S.-Pakistan relationship," according to a release from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

“I look forward to these visits and am pleased with the upward spiral in our relationship they represent,” Allen said, according to the statement.