No Troop Reductions until 2012: German Government Plans to Extend Afghanistan Troop Mandate

The German government does not plan to start reducing German troop levels in Afghanistan until 2012, a decision which could result in a dispute with the center-left Social Democrats, the largest opposition party in Germany's parliament.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and the interior and development ministers agreed in a meeting at the Chancellery to renew the existing parliamentary mandate for an upper limit of 5,000 troops plus a flexible reserve of 350 at the start of 2011.

Merkel plans to make a statement to parliament in mid-December calling for a broad parliamentary majority for an extended mandate. But that extension is likely to lead to a row with the SPD, which has supported past mandates for the Afghanistan mission.

Merkel does not need SPD support to renew the mandate, but she wants parliamentary backing for it to be as broad as possible to help deflect public criticism of the mission which is unpopular in Germany, as it is in most countries with troops in Afghanistan.

'No Further Combat Operations'

"The withdrawal must start next year," said Martin Schulz, a member of the European Parliament for the SPD. "The government must submit a concrete and precise timetable for that before prolonging the Afghanistan mandate in January."

If Merkel refuses to give such a timetable, Schulz recommends that the SPD should vote in favor of the mandate but submit a parliamentary motion for a timetable to be attached to the mandate, and to refuse its support for any further extensions in the years to come.

He said it must be made clear that "the Bundeswehr will take part in no further combat operations in the corridor between 2013 and 2015 at the latest."

Leaders of the SPD met on Monday of last week to agree the party's line on the future of the German mission in Afghanistan.

Germany has the third largest presence in Afghanistan after the United States and Britain. In February, German parliament approved a new mandate that increased the troop ceiling by 850 to 5,350 soldiers. The vote was 429 out of 586 in favor with 111 against and 49 abstentions. Most SPD members of parliament backed the mandate. According to a recent survey, 62 percent of Germans are in favor of an immediate withdrawal of the Bundeswehr from Afghanistan.