Finland to participate in the OSCE military monitoring mission in Georgia

Press release 301/2008
26 August, 2008

The President of the Republic has decided today, 26 August, that Finland will participate in the military monitoring mission in Georgia undertaken by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Finland will send at most ten military monitoring officers to Georgia. The matter was discussed today during the Government’s extraordinary Presidential session.

The first two Finnish military monitoring officers are already deployed in Georgia and are among the 20 military monitoring officers the OSCE decided to send to the crisis area immediately on 19 August. The remaining Finnish officers can be sent to the area once the OSCE has more precisely defined the terms for deployment to Georgia of at most 100 additional military monitoring officers.

The task of the military monitoring officers is to monitor the ceasefire achieved on the basis of the proposal made by the EU Presidency, France, and the OSCE Chairmanship, Finland, and to follow the humanitarian aid situation.

Additional information: Timo Kantola, Head of the Unit for Security Policy, tel. +358 9 1605 5480