Canada PM tells Sarkozy it may pull out of Afghanistan
OTTAWA (AFP) — Prime Minister Stephen Harper has told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Canada will withdraw its troops from Afghanistan unless NATO sends reinforcements, his spokeswoman said.
Speaking by telephone Tuesday, Harper first thanked Sarkozy "for the assistance France has provided to Canadians seeking to leave Chad in the wake of the violence there," spokeswoman Sandra Buckler said in an e-mail.
They then discussed a new report by a committee led by former deputy prime minister John Manley that urged Canada to keep its 2,500 troops in Afghanistan only if its NATO allies send at least 1,000 additional troops and equipment, including helicopters and drones, to bolster the Canadian force.
Heeding its findings, Harper has said he will bring Canada's troops home at the end of their current mandate in February 2009 unless NATO allies step up their support for the mission.
Harper has already informed US President George W. Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown and NATO's secretary general of Canada's position.
NATO defense ministers will meet this week in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Canada deployed 2,500 troops in Afghanistan's volatile southern Kandahar province as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) battling Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Since 2002, 78 Canadian soldiers and a senior diplomat have died in roadside bombings and in melees with the insurgents.
