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Canadian PM sticks to exit plan from Afghanistan

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-22 09:25

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper listens to a question from the audience after his address to the Canadian American Business Council in New York, September 17, 2009. [Agencies]

OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Monday repeated that Canada will stick to its schedule for pulling out from Afghanistan, despite a US general warning that more resources are needed there.

"I was very clear in my meetings in the United States last week that that remains Canada's plan," said Harper at a press conference in Guelph, Ontario.

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"In 2011, we will have been in Afghanistan almost as long as we were in the two world wars combined," Harper said. "I think in this time frame we've just got to see some results from the Afghan government on the ground as it pertains to their own security."

NATO commander in Afghanistan, US general Stanley McChrystal, said in a report released Sunday that NATO must change its strategy in Afghanistan and add more resources to the fight or risk defeat.

Unless the United States and its allies gain the initiative and reverse the momentum of the militants within the next year, McChrystal's report says NATO "risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

McChrystal warns that a lack of adequate resources could mean a longer conflict, greater casualties, and a loss of support in Afghanistan and NATO's member countries.

During his Washington trip last week, Harper said Canada held firm to its position that Afghanistan government and military must gradually shoulder the security responsibility in their country.

All NATO allies must make clear that they work towards that goal and the Afghan mission cannot succeed without the effective participation of the Afghans themselves, he told a joint press conference with US President Barack Obama.  

Canada's Parliament passed a legislation last year stating that the country's 2,500 troops will return by early 2011.

Harper said Canada has been putting more resources towards development and humanitarian aid and less on security as part of the transition out of the country.