French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday he would follow the US in starting a gradual troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, a move that could shore up his popularity before next year’s election.
Sarkozy said troops sent for reinforcement would start returning in a time frame similar to the US force withdrawal. US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the US would pull out 33,000 troops by late next year.
“France will begin a gradual withdrawal of reinforcement troops sent to Afghanistan, in a proportional manner and in a calendar similar to the withdrawal of American reinforcements,” Sarkozy’s -office said after he spoke to Obama by telephone.
France has about 4,000 troops in Afghanistan, and has seen 62 soldiers killed. It is due to start redeploying and handing over areas it controls to the Afghan military later this year.
NATO leaders agreed in November to end combat operations and hand security responsibility to Afghan forces by end-2014, and Obama vowed to start withdrawing US troops from next month.
French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told reporters at the Paris Air Show on Thursday that the French withdrawal would start in the coming months, but details would be kept quiet to avoid -giving information to Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents.
“It will be significant for 2011 and, like the Americans, we will see this materialize in 2012,” he said.
Later on Thursday, Longuet told France 2 TV the troop withdrawal would concern about a quarter of French forces in Afghanistan this year and next year, without specifying which region the troops would be drawn from.
French troops have been involved in the US and NATO-led Afghanistan operation since 2001 and there is growing frustration in both political and public circles with the campaign.
Nearly 10 years after a Taliban government was toppled, foreign forces have been unable to deal a decisive blow that would neutralize the resurgent Islamist militant group. The Afghan government remains weak and notoriously corrupt, and billions of dollars of foreign aid have yielded meagre results.
A recent BVA opinion poll following the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May showed 55 percent of people in France were in favor of a withdrawal.
An early withdrawal from Afghanistan could boost his chances in what looks set to be a tough battle for re-election against a resurgent left, with the far right also eating into his support.
The conservative has been edging back up in opinion polls since his erstwhile rival for next year, former IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was knocked out of the race by a sex assault scandal, but he remains one of the least popular French presidents for decades.
“Sarkozy could present himself while announcing a withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Socialist opposition would be hard placed to criticize him about that as it has pushed for a coordinated withdrawal with the United States,” French military analyst Jean-Dominique Merchet wrote in a blog.
“Since the start, France has never had its own political and strategic policy in Afghanistan and has followed the Americans,” said Karim Pakzad, a researcher at international relations think tank IRIS in Paris.
He said France sent 700 troops to reinforce the Afghan mission in 2008 at the request of then-US president George W. Bush.
“Since the Americans are withdrawing, I don’t really see what else France could do. It’s American policy that dictates,” he said.
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