Finland supports OSCE projects to promote border security and management between Tajikistan and Afghanistan

Press release 64/2008
27 February, 2008

Finland will dispatch three border experts to Tajikistan to support OSCE border security and management projects in Central Asia. Colonel (Retd) Juhani Paakkinen and Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Seppo Juntunen of the Finnish Border Guard will serve as OSCE experts and will assist the Tajikistan authorities in establishing a national border strategy. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has donated 180,000 euros to the project.

In addition, Finland has allocated 400,000 euros to a pilot project aimed at training border guards to work in challenging conditions on the Tajik-Afghan border. The project will be coordinated at the OSCE Centre in Dushanbe by Inspector Kati Heiska, also from the Finnish Border Guard.

The three Finnish experts will be deployed for one year.

The foreign ministers of the 56 OSCE participating States agreed in November 2007 to investigate ways to support OSCE Partner for Co-operation Afghanistan. The promotion of border security and management in Central Asia is one of the priorities of the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship and provides a possibility to promote concrete co-operation between the OSCE and Afghanistan.

Finnish expertise in border security and management is widely recognized internationally.

Further information: Counsellor Janne Taalas, the Finnish OSCE Chairmanship Task Force, [email protected], +358 9 160 56657