By Xinhua
Ottawa : Canada will have to end its military mission in Afghanistan if NATO does not assume a greater role in the country’s volatile south, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the French president by phone Tuesday.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the third foreign leader Harper had spoken to in the past week in an effort to rally NATO support for Canada’s 2,500-plus troops fighting in and around Kandahar province.
Harper had previously called U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss the issue.
A Canadian independent panel has recommended troop withdrawals unless NATO agrees to provide 1,000 reinforcements to the Canadian force, in addition to combat helicopters and new unmanned surveillance aircraft.
Harper has decided to put the mission’s future to a parliamentary vote later this spring in spite of its scheduled expiry next February.