The cabinet will only decide whether to push for a police training mission to Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Dutch troops after the June 9 general election, foreign minister Maxime Verhagen said on Friday.

‘It is still too early to take concrete steps. If there is a decision it will not be under current conditions. In any case, it will be after the election,’ Verhagen said on the fringes of a Nato meeting in Estonia.
A majority of MPs on Thursday called on the cabinet to look into setting up a mission to train Afghan police officers. The plan was drawn up by the D66 Liberals and left-wing greens GroenLinks and has the backing of police chiefs.
The Netherlands will begin withdrawing its 1,800 soldiers and support staff from the region in August despite intense pressure from Nato and the US to stay. The issue led to the cabinet’s collapse in February.
Verhagen has already discussed the police training idea with his Australian counterpart, the Volkskrant reports. Australian troops work together with the Dutch in the southern region of Uruzgan. A replacement for the Dutch forces has not yet been found.