French President François Hollande said France had done “more than its duty” in Afghanistan, as officials said a calendar to pull out troops would be drawn up in the coming days.
Speaking at the end of a two-day Nato summit in the US city of Chicago, the new French president reiterated that “combat troops will be withdrawn at the end of 2012” adding that some “military” elements would stay on Afghan soil for training Afghan police and soldiers and to help “repatriate our materiel.”
Hollande also denied that France would have to make some kind of payback for pulling out its troops by the end of 2012, a year earlier than planned.
“There is no compensation to pay or even to be thought of. We have done more than our duty and I remind everyone of French losses: 83 men lost their lives, there have been numerous wounded,” he told journalists.