Reuters: World News: France's Hollande makes unannounced Afghanistan trip

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France's Hollande makes unannounced Afghanistan trip May 25th 2012, 05:58 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Insight: Iran's "Great Game" in Afghanistan Thu, May 24 2012 NATO endorses strategy to end Afghan war but risks remain Tue, May 22 2012 NATO sets "irreversible" but risky course to end Afghan war Mon, May 21 2012 WRAPUP 7-NATO to hand combat role to Afghans as it seeks way out of war Sun, May 20 2012 NATO seeks unity on Afghan war despite French exit plan Sun, May 20 2012 Analysis & Opinion Is France closing for business? Shifting euro zone sands France's President Francois Hollande waves after talks at the Elysee Palace in Paris May 24, 2012. Credit: Reuters/John Schults PARIS | Fri May 25, 2012 1:58am EDT PARIS (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Friday to visit some of the French troops he wants to pull out later this year and meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom he saw briefly last week in Chicago. Hollande, making a whirl of foreign trips since his May 15 inauguration, is accelerating the withdrawal of the roughly 3,400 French troops still stationed in Afghanistan to the end of this year, two years ahead of the NATO timetable. His office said he would pledge to keep to a long-term cooperation treaty signed with Kabul earlier this year. Hollande's new withdrawal timetable is at odds with NATO partners adhering to a plan to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and withdraw most of the 130,000 foreign troops there by the end of 2014. Some 2,000 troops are due to leave this year but some will remain to provide support and training, and to look after equipment. France has 14 helicopters, 900 vehicles and 1,400 containers that need to be taken out via road and plane. France has been asked to contribute just under $200 million a year for long-term funding for Afghanistan, part of an annual bill estimated at $4.1 billion to maintain Afghan forces after 2014. Hollande has signaled that he will commit to nothing until it is clear how the money will be managed. Hollande, who defeated conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in a May 6 election run-off, was accompanied on his trip by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. Since his swearing in last week he has made official trips to Berlin and Washington, and attended G8 and NATO summits in the United States and a European Union leaders summit in Brussels. (Reporting by Patrick Vignal; Writing by Catherine Bremer; Editing by James Regan and Louise Ireland) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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