Obama reaffirms 2011 Afghan withdrawal plan - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

Obama reaffirms 2011 Afghan withdrawal plan

SYDNEY — President Obama on Thursday reaffirmed his plans to start withdrawing U.S troops from Afghanistan in 2011, saying they “can’t be there in perpetuity.”

In an interview with Australian television ahead of an Asian visit, Obama also indicated that Washington will maintain efforts to get China, India and other developing countries to make further commitments to fighting global warming.

Obama confirmed he will visit Australia in June — rescheduling a visit to the staunch military ally and to nearby Indonesia that was deferred last month so the president could conduct last-minute lobbying on his health care reforms.

Afghanistan is likely to be a key topic for discussion when he holds talks with leaders in Australia, which has some 1,500 troops in the country — the largest single contingent outside NATO — and has suffered 11 combat deaths.

Obama said the war in Afghanistan remained a difficult task but that there had been positive trends recently.

“I would dispute the notion that it is not getting better,” Obama told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in the interview, conducted in the White House. “I do think that what we have seen is a blunting of the momentum of the Taliban, which had been building up in the year prior to me taking office.”

He reiterated his plan to begin drawing down U.S. troops in 2011 and handing responsibility for security to domestic forces in Afghanistan.

“We can’t be there in perpetuity,” he said.

On China, Obama said the United States was not interested in constraining the Asian giant’s booming growth or emergence as a world power but that the country must take seriously the responsibilities that come with that role.

Asked about China’s commitment to fighting global warming, Obama said Chinese leaders understand they need to decide on a model that allows the country to pursue its growth while protecting the environment.

“Right now, though, their impulse is to say, well, we’ll let the developed countries, the Australias and the Americas, deal with this problem first and we’ll deal with it when we’ve caught up a little bit in terms of our standard of living,” he said.

“The point we’ve tried to make is that we can’t allow China to wait.”

He named India and Brazil as other emerging countries that needed to take responsibility for combating greenhouse gas emissions.

China and the United States are among the world’s largest emitters of the gases that cause global warming, though Obama said “no two countries can dictate a solution” to the problem.

More on Afghanistan

• 4 NATO troops killed in northern Afghanistan

• Karzai’s brother mends ties with U.S.