Nato: 'no rush to exit' Afghanistan despite Australia's surprise pull-out However, Thomas de Maiziere, Germany's defence minister expressed dismay at Australia signalling that it would pull out almost all its combat troops next year rather than being part of a phased withdrawal up until the end of 2014. "Australia's message surprised me," he said. Major General John P Cantwell, the former commander of Australian forces in Afghanistan, who stepped down in February, attacked the motives of Nato's leaders, including Julia Gillard, Australia's Prime Minister "There is an unpleasant whiff of politics and self-interest in the strategy to withdraw American, Australian and other foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by 2014 or earlier," he wrote in The Age newspaper. The electoral cycles of nations contributing troops to the fight in Afghanistan mean that politicians everywhere are looking for the exits. Nato officials stressed that the withdrawal of 1,500 Australian combat troops from Afghanistan's Uruzgan province was scheduled to begin in mid-2012 over a "12- to 18-month period" before the announcement on Tuesday. "It's hardly a rush for the exit," said one official. Ministerial talks in Brussels follow Taliban attacks in Kabul at the weekend that underscored the continuing insurgency in Afghanistan at a time when Nato and Western troop numbers are being scaled down. Nato's current ISAF force is 130,000 strong and is scheduled to be reduced by 20,000 in September. General John R Allen, the American commander of ISAF, will make his demand for troop levels in the 2013 to 2014 period in mid- to late- November, after US elections. Nato will agree a statement of its long-term strategy for Afghanistan at a Chicago meeting of alliance leader on 20 May. The agreement will include how to share the annual £3.7 billion costs of the 352,000 strong Afghan security forces, a bill that is estimated to fall to £2.6bn a year by 2017.