Afghan war will cost British taxpayers £20 billion by time mission is complete

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/9275712/Afghan-war-will-cost-British-taxpayers-20-billion-by-time-mission-is-complete.html

By James Kirkup, In Chicago

7:00AM BST 19 May 2012

As David Cameron prepares to agree the final timetable for withdrawing most British troops from Afghanistan, official figures have disclosed the financial cost of more than a decade of military operations.

By the end of March this year, Afghan operations had cost taxpayers a total of £17.3 billion on top of the core defence budget, according to the independent House of Commons Library.

The calculation is based on figures that will be formally published by the Ministry of Defence later this year.

Britain’s current military engagement in Afghanistan began in October 2001 and has cost 414 British lives.

Mr Cameron has said the mission will be brought to an end before the next general election.

Troop numbers are falling from 9,500 to 9,000 by the end of the year, with a much larger withdrawal due next year before combat operations end in late 2014.

Despite the winding down of operations, the remaining years of Afghan operations are estimated to cost the UK at least another £800 million.

Defence sources have said that the final costs of the British withdrawal will also be significant, since large amounts of heavy equipment will have to be physically removed from the country, or given to the Afghans.

Most of the British kit will have to be transported out of the country by land. Pakistani routes are currently closed, so the MoD is planning a route across the former Soviet republics of central Asia including Uzbekistan and Kazakhastan.

MoD officials are currently estimating that each container of gear transported along the central Asian route will cost the department £20,000.

Mr Cameron arrived in the US last night for a Group of Eight summit, where discussions will today include Afghanistan.

Tomorrow, he will attend a Nato summit in Chicago that is due to finalise the alliance’s plan to end its mission in Afghanistan in 2014.

Britain and America will use the weekend’s summits to put pressure on Francois Hollande, the new French president, to drop his pledge to withdraw France’s 3,300 troops from Afghanistan this year.

Even after the formal end to the British combat mission in Afghanistan the UK is set to be a significant financial supporter of the Afghan government and its security forces.

In an article published yesterday FRI, Mr Cameron said the world’s leading economies are shouldering an unfairly large share of the financial burden from Afghanistan.

Countries that have not taken part in the military operation must help fund its post-intervention government, the Prime Minister said.

“Today the G8 accounts for four-fifths of the donor funding now going to the region. We must encourage other countries to step up and contribute to the future of Afghanistan, irrespective of the role they have played so far,” he said.

Jim Murphy, the Labour shadow defence secretary, said the huge costs of the Afghan operation make an orderly withdrawal all the more important.

“After the lives sacrificed and the money spent it is vital that withdrawal does not lead to the return of the conditions which led us to war. Withdrawal must be internationally co-ordinated and we need a renewed focus on the safety of British personnel before and beyond 2014,” he said.