On Monday at the United Nations, Finland pledged several hundred peacekeepers for UN operations. The pledge drew praise from President Barack Obama, whose appeal for extra peacekeepers prompted promises of more than 40,000 troops.
Among the Finnish soldiers committed by President Sauli Niinistö are special forces and a chemical weapons laboratory to be deployed from 2018. However Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö (no relation) said on Tuesday that the troops are not in fact new and would not represent an increase in Finnish peacekeeping forces.
"There’s no difference or drama here," said Finns Party MP Jussi Niinistö. "The government programme says that Finland will continue to take an active role in resolving international crises, and that’s what Finland will do. Of course next year’s budget proposal includes for example a small reduction in military crisis management expenditure. The idea is to focus on missions that are more meaningful from a Finnish perspective."
The government programme states that Finland will reduce peacekeeping resources, but focus on more significant and effective operations. The Defence Minister says that the troops announced by the President in New York do not in fact represent an increase in Finnish peacekeeping resources, and have already been notified to the UN.
Niinistö also said that the actual deployment of the troops would be decided separately, and that the government could decide not to send them to crisis zones after all.