Europe

Europe

British gov’t to consider early withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan

10 December 2011 02:12 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The British government confirmed on Friday that next week it would consider withdrawing thousands of troops from its base in Afghanistan, up to a year earlier than originally planned, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Local media reported that troop numbers in Afghanistan would be on the agenda for Britain’s National Security Council (NSC) on Tuesday next week.

"Next week’s National Security Council meeting will discuss Afghanistan and will look at the approach up to and beyond 2014," Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in a statement.

The early withdrawal of up to 4,500 troops by the end of 2013 from the 10,000-strong army fighting in Afghanistan would be one of the options considered at the NSC, according to local media report.

A total of 9,000 British troops are presently deployed in the southern Afghanistan province of Helmand, where they are heavily engaged in fighting.

The 391st British soldier dead in the war was reported on Thursday. Casualty figures for Britain are second only to the United States casualties among foreign powers.

A spokesman said that the British Prime Minister David Cameron had already made two commitments regarding the war in Afghanistan, "500 UK troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2012 and the Government has been clear that by the end of 2014 British troops will not be in Afghanistan in significant numbers or in a combat role."

New defense secretary Philip Hammond also made clear earlier this week in his first public speech and at a Defense Committee meeting that he would be sticking to the deadline of the end of 2014, and that there would only be "several hundreds of troops" remaining in Afghanistan, in training and mentoring roles.

However, the revelation that Britain is considering withdrawing thousands of troops in 2013 is a new departure in policy and could set it in conflict with the United States, the principal force in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, and with Britain’s other NATO partners who also have troops deployed there.

An early departure in significant numbers by Britain could spark similar moves from other nations.

Britain’s government has carried out its austerity program to tackle the near record public spending deficit of 127 billion pounds (about 200 billion U.S. dollars) which it began after taking power in May, 2010.

This has entailed large cuts in government departmental spending, with some departments losing more than 20 percent of their budget over four years. Defense is slated for an 8 percent reduction.