France Says 1,000 Troops To Leave Afghanistan

FORWARD OPERATING BASE TORA, Afghanistan - President Nicolas Sarkozy said July 12 that France would withdraw a quarter of its 4,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year, becoming the latest NATO power to downsize its combat mission in the war-torn country.

The French leader announced the withdrawal during a surprise visit to meet troops stationed in Sarobi district, northeast of Kabul, and to be briefed on progress against the Taliban by a French general.

"It's necessary to end the war," Sarkozy told journalists at the base. "There was never a question of keeping troops in Afghanistan indefinitely."

France has around 4,000 troops deployed in the country, mostly in Sarobi, Kabul, and in northeastern Kapisa province.

"We will withdraw a quarter of our troops, that's to say 1,000 men, by the end of 2012," he said. Those remaining in Afghanistan will be concentrated in Kapisa, where they have been deployed since 2008.

"The first group will leave at the end of this year," Sarkozy said, without specifying the magnitude of this "first phase."

That withdrawal will be "in consultation with our allies and with the Afghan authorities," he said, as "the situation allows."

The partial drawdown follows similar announcements by Britain and the United States, as Western leaders look to a final deadline of the end of 2014 to extract all combat troops from an increasingly deadly and costly conflict.

In Kabul, Sarkozy held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was in a somber mood after receiving news shortly before the discussions that his younger brother Ahmed Wali Karzai had been assassinated in Kandahar.

Sarkozy did not rule out that French military advisors and trainers would remain after combat troops leave, "if the Afghan authorities want", adding that civilian cooperation would also continue.

"We must not abandon Afghanistan. We will continue to help Afghanistan. We'll go from military to economic cooperation," Sarkozy said after his meeting with Karzai before flying out of the country.

The French leader earlier met the top U.S. commander on the ground, Gen. David Petraeus, who will oversee the initial drawdown of 33,000 U.S. troops set to leave by the end of next summer - effectively ending a military "surge" ordered into Afghanistan, principally the south, in late 2009.

Britain has said 500 of its soldiers will leave by the end of next year. Belgium has also announced some of its troops will depart and Canada last week ended its near 3,000-strong combat mission in the southern province Kandahar.

It was Sarkozy's third visit to the battle-scarred country since becoming president and came two days ahead of the Bastille Day French national holiday. His earlier trips were in December 2007 and August 2008.

His trip came a day after a 22-year-old French soldier was killed in a shooting blamed on "accidental fire" by a fellow French soldier.

France has lost 64 soldiers in the course of the war, according to figures compiled by the independent icasualties.org.

Last month, Sarkozy said "several hundred" French troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan before the end of the year.

His office had said earlier that France would carry out a progressive pullback of its 4,000 troops "in a proportional manner and in a timeframe similar to the pullback of the American reinforcements."

Sarkozy's visit comes days after that by new U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and a week after a visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron, with Western leaders focused on efforts to draw down troops and end the long war.

Commanders are now preparing to hand over seven NATO-held areas to Afghan control starting in mid-July, although there is widespread doubt over the ability of Afghan forces to take full responsibility for their own security.

Sarkozy said he shared U.S. President Barack Obama's belief that security had improved since the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in May and that the handover to Afghan troops and police was proceeding smoothly.

Should the situation improve, the pullout of all Western combat troops in 2014 might be "brought forward", he said.

U.S.-led coalition forces have been fighting the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan since they invaded in late 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks orchestrated by bin Laden.

Iraq in Talks To Buy U.S. Fighter Jets: Report

WASHINGTON - Iraq has renewed talks to buy up to 36 U.S. F-16 fighter jets in a deal worth billions that Washington hopes will help contain neighboring Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported July 11.

Iraq had frozen a $4.2 billion deal to buy 18 fighter jets earlier year because of instability related to the Arab Spring but is now considering an even larger purchase, the Journal said, citing U.S. and Iraqi officials.

The newspaper said the renewed interest was linked to higher-than-expected Iraqi oil revenues and concerns on both sides ahead of the withdrawal of the remaining 46,000 U.S. troops from the country by the end of the year.

Any potential deal would be worth billions of dollars and take years to implement, as it would require the manufacture of the planes and the training of Iraqi pilots.

The Journal said Iraq has also requested ground-based air defense systems, including ground-to-air missiles and large guns.

It said Oman was also looking to purchase 18 F-16s at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier July 11 during a surprise visit to Baghdad that U.S. forces were continuing to pursue Iran-backed insurgents, saying they had killed a "heck of a lot" of U.S. troops.

Washington has been pressing Iraq to make a decision on whether it wants US troops to remain in the country beyond the end of the year, when all U.S. forces are to be withdrawn under a 2008 security pact.

South Korea Defense Chief To Visit China for Talks

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea's defense minister will visit China this week for talks on regional security issues including Beijing's ally North Korea, officials said July 12.

Kim Kwan-Jin, during a trip from July 14-16, will discuss ways to strengthen military ties with his counterpart Liang Guanglie, the defense ministry said in a statement.

Kim will also meet vice president and likely future president Xi Jinping and Chief of Staff Gen. Chen Bingde and tour army and air force bases.

"Kim, during talks with Liang, will exchange opinions about regional security situations including North Korea issues and ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation," the statement said.

Kim's visit will be the first to China by a South Korean defense minister since two deadly incidents blamed on North Korea last year.

Tensions on the peninsula have flared since the South accused the North of torpedoing one of its warships with the loss of 46 lives in March 2010.

The North angrily denied the charge but shelled a border island, killing four South Koreans, including two civilians, and briefly sparked fears of war.

China, the North's sole major ally and its economic lifeline, sparked irritation in Seoul by failing to blame Pyongyang categorically for the attacks.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Beijing on July 10 to use its ties with Pyongyang to ensure regional stability and warned the North against further provocations.

Canada Will Ship War Supplies Home Via Kuwait

MONTREAL - Canada will use air and port facilities in Kuwait to help ship back home military materiel used during its nine-year combat mission in Afghanistan, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said July 11.

"Kuwait is an influential partner in the region and we are very pleased that this agreement has been reached for the benefit our respective countries," MacKay said in a statement.

He was speaking after he signed a deal during a two-day visit to Kuwait for logistical support from the Gulf nation.

Canada officially ended its nine-year combat mission in Afghanistan on July 7, closing the curtain after the deaths of 157 troops.

The departure of nearly 3,000 troops, who took on some of the heaviest fighting in the southern province of Kandahar, comes as Western forces begin to announce gradual drawdowns of troops ahead of a full withdrawal in 2014.

After spending more than C$11 billion on the war and with popular support waning at home, most of the Canadian soldiers, based mainly in the dangerous battleground of Kandahar, have packed up and gone home.

"The movement of equipment and vehicles from Afghanistan requires access to both an airport and sea terminal for the transhipment of materiel back to Canada," the Canadian defense ministry said in a statement. "The establishment of this support presence in Kuwait allows this to happen in a safe and controlled environment."

Until last year, Canada was using a base situated in Dubai to support its operations in Afghanistan. It was forced to leave the base amid differences with the United Arab Emirates over increasing commercial flights between the two nations.

MacKay recalled that Canada had deployed some 4,000 troops during the first Gulf War in 1991, and "our friendship has grown stronger over the past 20 years," he added.

A separate Canadian training mission involving 950 troops will continue to work in Kabul with Afghan security forces.

Canada will also continue to give aid to Afghanistan, with its overall involvement between now and the end of 2014 expected to cost around US$700 million a year.

Talks Continue on U.S. Navy Destroyer Contracts

General Dynamics and the U.S. Navy are continuing to actively negotiate construction contracts for the second and third DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class destroyers.
Going into discussions that took place last week at the company's Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard in Bath, Maine, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said the parties "remain significantly apart, not only on pricing of the two-ship contract, but also on important contract terms and conditions."

Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley was at the shipyard last week for a retirement ceremony, but it is not clear if he discussed the negotiations with the company's management.
The Navy and its shipbuilders do not routinely comment on the status of contract negotiations.
Mabus made his remarks in a June 27 letter to Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, who asked for an update on the DDG 1000 program. A copy of the letter was obtained by Defense News.
Negotiations on the construction contract for DDG 1001, second of the three ships in the class, was delayed for about a year while a series of events needed to play out: the DDG 1000 program was re-certified after a Nunn-McCurdy cost breech, brought on by the Navy's decision to shrink the program from seven to three ships; Navy negotiations with Northrop Grumman and its Huntington-Ingalls spinoff - necessary because the Navy and its shipyards agreed to move all DDG 1000 ship assembly to Bath - were stalled while the company reorganized; and the six-month absence of a 2011 defense bill made the issuance of new contracts impossible.
All of those obstacles now have been cleared.
Construction of the Monsoor (DDG 1001) has been ongoing under a series of advanced procurement contracts and - before the major issues arose - a full construction contract had been expected to be agreed on in early 2010. But the shipbuilders need the full contract to move to the next levels of construction, and the yet-to-be-named DDG 1002 also is now linked to the 1001 talks.
"The current proposal from BIW is significantly above the government's independent estimate," Mabus wrote in his letter to Pingree. "The Navy is reviewing all aspects of the program to identify opportunities to reduce program cost to close the gap.
"Likewise, we have been forthright with BIW where we believe their estimates for performance need to be improved to help close this gap."
In a May 26 letter to Mabus, Pingree also expressed her concern that the recent award of DDG 113 - the latest DDG 51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be ordered - would give Huntington-Ingalls an unfair startup advantage when it comes to bidding on the next ships in the class.
The Navy halted DDG 51 procurement for a period but then announced a restart of the program when it cut the number of DDG 1000s it would buy. BIW and Huntington-Ingalls share in construction of DDG 51 destroyers.
Bath is still working on the last two DDG 51s awarded under prior contracts, but Huntington-Ingalls delivered its last destroyer earlier this year, and has already laid off many employees who worked on the Aegis-equipped ships.
The Navy has announced that DDG 114 will be awarded to Huntington-Ingalls and DDG 115 to Bath. The yard offering the best deal will get DDG 116.
Pingree's concerns were that Huntington-Ingalls got an unfair advantage by having already received a new destroyer contract, while BIW would have to incur more restart costs on 115 that Huntington-Ingalls won't have to factor into its 114 bid.
Mabus wrote that the Navy does not view the restart costs as a factor in the competition. He noted that Bath has built more DDG 51s - 34 - than Huntington-Ingalls' 28, including four of the last five ships, and remains the lead yard for the program.
"For all of these reasons, the Navy believes that BIW is in sound position to compete fairly in the current DDG 51 competition," Mabus wrote to Pingree

U.S. Suspends Millions in Military Aid to Pakistan: Report

WASHINGTON - The United States is suspending or canceling hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Pakistani military amid deteriorating ties, The New York Times reported late July 9.
Citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, the newspaper said the move was aimed at chastening Pakistan for expelling American military trainers and to press its army to fight militants more effectively.

In the wake of the May raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, the United States recalled dozens of military trainers on Pakistan's orders, while huge tensions remain over a covert American drone war against militants on the Afghan border.
According to The Times, about $800 million in military aid and equipment, or over one-third of the more than $2 billion in annual U.S. security assistance to Pakistan, could be affected by the suspension.
This aid includes about $300 million to reimburse Pakistan for some of the costs of deploying more than 100,000 soldiers along the Afghan border as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in training assistance and military hardware, the report said.
Some of the curtailed aid is equipment that the U.S. wants to send but Pakistan now refuses to accept, like rifles, ammunition, body armor and bomb-disposal gear, the paper said.
These deliveries were withdrawn or held up after Islamabad ordered more than 100 Army Special Forces trainers to leave the country in recent weeks, The Times noted.
Some of this equipment, such as night-vision goggles and helicopter spare parts, cannot be set up, certified or used for training because Pakistan has denied visas to the U.S. personnel needed to operate it, the paper said.
And some of the suspended assistance is reimbursement for troop costs, which is being reviewed in light of questions about Pakistan's commitment to carry out counterterrorism operations, The Times said.

Mullen Asks for China Help on North Korea

BEIJING - America's top military officer on July 10 urged Beijing to use its relationship with Pyongyang to ensure regional stability, while warning North Korea against further dangerous provocations.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, attends the Cooperative Security and Regional Stability in Asia meeting at Renmin University in Beijing on July 10. (STR / AFP via Getty Images)

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, stressed that Washington was in no way seeking to contain China's dramatic rise, but that the U.S. would remain active in the Asia Pacific region for a long time.

"North Korea and the leadership of North Korea is only predictable in one sense and that is - if you base it historically - they will continue to provocate," Mullen told reporters after arriving in Beijing.
"The provocations I think now are potentially more dangerous than they have been in the past."
Tensions in Northeast Asia have risen sharply since South Korea accused the North of torpedoing a warship in March 2010, killing 46 sailors.
Pyongyang angrily denied the charge but went on to shell a border island in November, killing four South Koreans including two civilians.
Six-party nuclear disarmament talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, have been stalled since the North abandoned them in April 2009. It staged its second nuclear test a month later.
"All of us are focused on a stable outcome here of what is increasingly a difficult challenge with respect to the leadership in North Korea and what it might do," Mullen said.
"The Chinese leadership, they have a strong relationship with the leadership in Pyongyang and they exercise that routinely ... continuing to do that as they have done in the past is really important."
On a four-day trip to China, Mullen said he would discuss that and other issues in talks with his counterpart Gen. Chen Bingde and while visiting military bases as the two nations seek to bolster their security cooperation.
"The United States is deepening its commitment to this region and the alliances and partnerships that define our presence there," Mullen said in a speech at Beijing's Renmin University.
"We are, and will remain, a Pacific power, just as China is a Pacific power."
To help build trust with China, the U.S. will conduct anti-piracy drills with China in the Gulf of Aden this year, host medical aid exercises and participate in joint disaster relief exercises next year, he said.
"This region and the global challenges that we face together are just too vital and too vast for us to continue to find obstacles to a better understanding of each other," Mullen told reporters.
The trip coincided with a joint naval exercise that began July 9 with the U.S., Japanese and Australian navies in the South China Sea, where recent Chinese assertiveness over territorial claims has raised tensions.
During his trip, the first to China by a U.S. chairman of the joint chiefs since 2007, Mullen said he would also discuss the Taiwan issue, stability in the South China Sea and confidence-building measures between the two nations.
"Containing China is not the case ... we would like to see China in the long run to be a strong partner with the United States to resolve some of the issues that we have got both regionally and globally," Mullen said.
As tensions in the South China Sea mount, China-U.S. military exchanges have also picked up, with the former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates meeting Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in Singapore in June.
Gates also visited Beijing in January.
Gates warned last month that clashes could erupt in the South China Sea unless nations adopt a mechanism to settle their territorial disputes peacefully.
Mullen dismissed suggestions that wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya had left the U.S. military unable to play a strong role in the Pacific, describing the idea of America in decline as "just dead wrong."