Asia-Pacific
Sarkozy voices full support for Obama on Afghanistan
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-02 20:02
PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy voiced his "full support" on Wednesday for US President Barack Obama's new decision on Afghanistan but stopped short of committing more French troops.
The Elysee Palace said Obama's "courageous, determined and lucid discourse" can "give a new impetus to the international undertaking and open a new perspective."
"The French president will contribute full support and call all countries, which would like to help Afghan people, to adhere to it," the Elysee Palace said in a statement released less than an hour after Obama's speech in West Point in New York.
Sarkozy repeated that French troops would stay in Afghanistan "as long as necessary" for cooperating with allies to continue "military and civil support" to Afghan people, yet without mentioning extra troops to match Obama's new strategy.
French media reported that Obama had requested Sarkozy in a November 30 telephone conversation to send 1,500 extra combat troops to Afghanistan.
On Monday, Thierry Mariani, Sarkozy's special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said France excluded the deployment of more combat troops to Afghanistan, but may send in more trainers for Afghan army and police.
France currently has some 3,750 combat troops in Afghanistan, according to French Foreign Ministry statistics.
