French Afghan exit would impact Nato

A swift withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan as promised by new President Francois Hollande would put pressure on Nato allies, a former US ambassador said Tuesday. “I think people will regret an early French withdrawal. I think they probably will ask him (Hollande) to reconsider,” said James Dobbins, a national security expert and diplomat under previous US administrations. “If France leaves, that won’t collapse the Nato mission, but it certainly would set an unfortunate precedent and it would put pressure on other allies.” Hollande, who was inaugurated on Tuesday as the new president of France, has vowed in past months to withdraw the French troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, two years earlier than planned by Nato allies. Afghanistan is set to dominate the agenda of an upcoming Nato summit with the leaders of 50 countries gathering in Chicago for the two-day talks on Sunday and Monday. France has some 3,400 troops deployed in Afghanistan, mainly in the northeastern Kapisa valley, making it the fifth largest contingent among the 130,000-strong Isaf forces fighting the Taliban insurgency. “France will not be the first country to pull its troops out early. But France is a major participant there and has made quite a successful contribution and I think its participation will be missed,” Dobbins told reporters on a conference call. Dobbins said he thought that bilaterally Nato countries would probably urge Hollande to “reconsider or at least find some way of slowing down withdrawal.””I don’t know how possible that is within the framework of French politics,” he added.