Returning British troops have been congratulated on a "job well done" as Britain's 15-year military presence in Bosnia came to an end.
Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram told Welsh Guardsmen at a ceremony in London that their return marked the end of an era.
More than 600 British troops - the majority of whom were Welsh Guards - have returned from the former Yugoslavian republic over the past week.
The pull-out comes as the EU's Eufor force in Bosnia is scaled down from 6,000 to just 2,500 troops.
Mr Ingram said the British withdrawal was the result of increasing stability in the Balkan country, where an estimated 100,000-110,000 people died during a war in the 1990s in which 1.8 million people were also forcibly displaced.
Britain lost 55 service personnel during its 15-year involvement in Bosnia, in UN, Nato and EU missions.
With 1,400 extra British forces being sent to Afghanistan, Mr Ingram accepted that the pull-out from Bosnia had "benefits" but he insisted: "This is not a cut and run, this is a job well done."
Addressing a group of Welsh Guardsmen at a ceremony in London's Wellington Barracks, where they received operational medals, Mr Ingram said that when he first became a defence minister in 2001, the Balkans were still "an open wound".
He told members of the 1st Battalion, the Welsh Guards: "The fact that the improved security situation has allowed us to end our military operation in Bosnia and bring you home is a huge achievement. It truly marks the end of an era."
Speaking after the short ceremony he added: "The achievement is one of success - of course it is not just British forces, but we did play a major part in all of this - it is about bringing stability, about bringing peace and a measure of normality."
