Finland currently has about 110 soldiers in Afghanistan on crisis management duties.
Image: YLE
NATO wants Finland to send more forces to Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry says that NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen sent Finland a letter last week requesting that it consider sending more operative forces and trainers.
US President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that another 30,000 US troops would be deployed in Afghanistan. He also asked European countries to send between 5,000 and 10,000 soldiers to the country.
Finland’s political leaders are to discuss the request in the near future. Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb suggested on Wednesday that Finland might be able to send about 15 more trainers. He added that there is a problem with recruitment, saying, "It's hard to get people to go there."
Finnish Expert: Capability Exists
A Finnish military expert interviewed by YLE TV's breakfast show on Wednesday says that Finland would be capable of sending forces to Afghanistan for tasks including helping those in difficulty and training local security forces.
Jarno Limnéll, who teaches strategy at the National Defence University, said that Finland has the capability, if the political leaders decide to send more forces there.
“The new strategy clearly aims at emphasizing the importance of civilian crisis management, and this might be an area in which the Finnish contribution in Afghanistan could be increased,” Limnéll says.
There are now about 120 Finnish peacekeepers at a joint Finnish-Swedish base at Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan.
YLE
Source:yle.fi/
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