Sudan, possible field of employment of the Battlegroups. If yes…
Sudan could be a possible deployment ground for a battlegroup, according to the Finnish Defense Minister who spoke before his national parliament last week. But there are still some difficulties, he acknowledged, in front of deputies particularly upset to see Finnish troops put on alert for battlegroups (Finland is permanently in 2011) while these "battlegroups" do not have never been used in the past. Not for reasons of lack of opportunity but for reasons of lack of will...
MPs frustrated by the lack of employment of battlegroups
According to the daily Uutispäivä Demari, “ MPs are frustrated because battle groups are not used in practice ". The Chairman of the Parliamentary Defense Committee, Mr. Korkeaoja even asked himself the question of " the opportunity to maintain troops that we are not ready to send in any situation whatsoever ". And he asked that Finland that we " agree, at European level, more clearly than at present on the principles for the use of these groupings ". One country was mentioned by name during this debate as having blocked the deployment of troops: Germany. This reinforces our analysis of the time (for the Congo).
Two reasons: the stingy, the hostile
Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, like his Defense counterpart, Mr Häkämies, confirmed this state of mind. According to them, two reasons explain the non-deployment of the troops: the lack of credits (NB: one could rather say the will not to spend one's money for such interventions) and the fact that certain States have " favored NATO NRF troops ».
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