France ends its engagement in Kosovo. And NATO?
(BRUSSELS2) The decision had already been endorsed last December, during a force generation conference at NATO. On Saturday (February 8), a new step will be taken in Kosovo. A closing ceremony of the French commitment in this former province of Serbia will take place in the Kfor camp. The 320 soldiers who are still present will leave in the coming weeks - during the 1er half of 2014. This is the lighting squadron, which has an area control and border surveillance mission (in northern Kosovo) and a logistics support staff (in the Novo Selo camp). He will stay put. some officers in Pristina” in the General Staff. France will keep a rapid reaction capacity if the General Staff requests it, we specify to the General Staff of the armies. The situation is now “stabilized from a military point of view”. In fifteen years, we have gone from a logic of interposition and separation of combatants on police-type missions.
To get an idea of the decline in numbers since the beginning of the French commitment since 1999 and the NATO intervention: there were approximately 60.000 personnel engaged under KFOR in 1999 (including 6000 French), 13.000 military in 2009 (760 French). January 31, 2010 201: approximately 10.000 KFOR personnel as of January 31, 2010 (including 749 French); 5800 KFOR soldiers at 1er March 2011 (including 320 French).
NB: the transition to phase 3 of NATO disengagement will quickly arise for KFOR, whose number of personnel is still high in relation to the real military challenges and the size of the country. But many European countries "like" this kind of mission, without great risk, where the camps are "well established", with a certain "comfort", like at home in fact! External Operation (OPEX) without great risk. A kind of great maneuvering ground in fact...
Read also: French soldiers leave Kosovo
