Canada will withdraw all of its troops from Afghanistan in March 2014, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed Monday as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago wrapped up.
"The time has come," Harper said at the summit's conclusion. "All the benchmarks, all the milestones are being met to make this possible."
Harper said Canada will continue to support the Afghan army financially, pledging $110 million per year for three years beginning in 2015.
He called the contribution "generous" and said it sets an example for other nations to follow.
"The money we are putting into this is to the Afghan military," he said, addressing concerns about financial corruption in the country.
"We are not going to see it used for some other purpose."
It's estimated that it will cost $4.1 billion a year for Afghanistan to run its security forces once the NATO-led coalition pulls out in 2014.
NATO had asked Canada and a few other countries to leave some troops in the war-ravaged country past 2014 to help train Afghan soldiers, but Harper said Canada is sticking to the firm withdrawal deadline.
He said pulling troops out isn't an abandonment of the country, but a transfer of responsibility to the Afghan people.
"We will make the contributions necessary to ensure the Taliban does not reassert control over this country," Harper said.
NATO and its partner nations formally agreed that Afghan security forces would take control of any combat next summer with NATO sliding into a support role until the pullout date.
"If you asked me frankly, would I wish it was earlier, I would say yes," Harper said.
"But I think we're doing it as early as is feasible."
NATO declared in a summit statement that while it will maintain a significant presence in Afghanistan after 2014, "this will not be a combat mission."
As 28 NATO leaders and representatives from 22 other stakeholder countries met, the focus was very much on finding a way out.
"All the leaders have pretty much agreed the war in Afghanistan is at a stalemate and they want to get out as soon as possible," said CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife, reporting from Chicago.
"The leaders say Afghan security forces will take on much of that role next year and NATO combat forces will all be out in 2014."
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Afghan security forces are already leading security operations in half of Afghanistan.
"Transition means the people of Afghanistan increasingly see their own army and police in their towns and villages providing their security," Rasmussen said. "This is an important sign of progress towards our shared goal: an Afghanistan governed and secured by Afghans for Afghans."
U.S. President Barack Obama agreed plans are on pace to hand over security to Afghan forces in 2013, with U.S.-led NATO forces taking on a support role for the final year before the full withdrawal in 2014.
Canada ended its combat role in Afghanistan in 2011 but 950 troops have stayed on in a training role.
"Largely the prime minister's view is Canada has carried enough of the load in Afghanistan. We've lost 158 soldiers, we have 950 soldiers training now, by the time NATO forces leave in 2014 we will have been doing that for three years," Fife said.
Police, protesters clash in Chicago
Meanwhile, clashes erupted in Chicago Sunday night after demonstrators finished a three-kilometre march near the summit, protesting everything from the war in Afghanistan to climate change and union issues.
"Hey NATO, what do you say, how many kids did you kill today?" chanted demonstrators.
Though tight security was in place, tensions broke out and a number of officers used batons to subdue protesters after reportedly being attacked.
"The officers were assaulted, they don't have to stand there and take an assault," Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told reporters.
In total, 50 protesters were detained or arrested.
Some of the demonstrators were calling for the dissolution of the 63-year-old strategic military alliance created during the Cold War.
With files from The Associated Press
