By Xinhua
Ottawa : Canada has no plan to extend its Afghan mission and will withdraw its troops in time at the end of 2011, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Sunday.
MacKay made the remarks after NATO allies agreed to send 1,000 more troops to southern Afghanistan, satisfying Ottawa’s condition for extending its 2,500 troops by two years. The troops were originally scheduled to leave in February 2009.
Canada will not extend the mission “from a military perspective,” said MacKay, who just came back from the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, where France and the United States promised to send more troops to help Canada in military operations against the Taliban militia.
But Canada will continue to help with development after 2011, MacKay said during an interview with Canadian Television.
The House of Commons voted to extend the mission last month. But rising casualties during the past two years have led to strong domestic demands for troop withdrawal. Polls suggest that about 50percent of Canadians want an immediate pullout.
Since Canada first sent troops to Afghanistan in 2002, 82 Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died there.