France will not withdraw from Afghanistan despite an annual cost of half a billion euros because the Nato mission there is preventing Afghanistan's collapse, France's defence minister said on Tuesday. Speaking in a radio interview, Herve Morin said his ministry would make about 3 billion euros ($3.92 billion) in savings up to 2013 to help France bring its public finances under control, but Afghanistan would not be part of the savings.
"The French army must stay because there is no other solution," the centrist politician said. "If we weren't there, Afghanistan would collapse," he said, referring to the Nato-led international mission. "It's difficult to make people understand this, but what's at stake in Afghanistan is the stability of the region."
The 3,500-strong French contingent makes up only about 2 percent of Nato's US-dominated force in Afghanistan, but French support is an important signal of European backing. With Western powers keen to slash deficits run up during the financial crisis and voters tiring of steady troop losses in Afghanistan in return for modest success, many governments are seeking to define an exit strategy.
The United States, which accounts for two thirds of foreign troops in Afghanistan since tripling its force under President Barack Obama, is set to begin drawing down in mid-2011. The Netherlands began pulling its 2,000 troops out of Afghanistan on Sunday, after a political row brought down the government in February. France has lost 45 soldiers in Afghanistan since it took part in the US-led mission in 2001 to oust the Islamist Taliban movement and fight its al Qaeda allies.