Question of More Troops to Afghanistan Up in the Air
Finnish peacekeepers in Afghanistan in October 2009.
Image: YLE
Finland has not made a decision on whether or not to send additional troops to Afghanistan in the future. This week, the Finnish Defence Forces announced that supplementary troops stationed in Afghanistan will return home before the country’s runoff election on November 7. Some 100 Finnish peacekeepers will remain in Afghanistan.
A total of 86 Finnish peacekeepers are to return to Finland on October 28.
According to Lieutenant Commander Hannu Ojala of the Finnish Defence Forces, a decision on sending more troops in the coming years has not been made.
”No decisions have been made on either increasing or decreasing troops,” he told YLE from Bratislava, Slovakia.
Finnish Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies is currently in Slovakia for a meeting of defense ministers from NATO states. During the two-day unofficial summit, the ministers are discussing ways of overtaking the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. However, the meeting is not expected to produce concrete decisions on the future of NATO forces in the country.
Although a decision on deploying more troops has not been made, Finland is working with Sweden on potential plans for future action in Afghanistan. The plan includes what kinds of troops to send, how many peacekeepers to deploy and what their future duties would be.
“The time period depends on how the joint plan proceeds this autumn and spring,” says Ojala.
Meanwhile, Ojala says finding people interested in the operation should not be a problem.
“As far as I know, there have not been problems recruiting people. Generally speaking, the numbers of recruits have declined. But it is a different matter when considering specific destinations. More people are interested in going to Afghanistan than say Kosovo,” says Ojala.
After October, Finland will have about 110 peacekeepers in Afghanistan. The majority of them work under Sweden forces in northern Afghanistan.
YLE