UN Security Council’s membership campaign in the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy
Government Communications Unit
Press release 170/2007
8 June 2007
On Friday, 8 June, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed Finland’s nomination for the UN Security Council, participation of the Finnish Defence Forces in international exercises in 2008, development of crisis management transport, promotion of the Nordic defence policy co-operation, and demobilisation of the reinforced engineer company in the UNIFIL operations of the United Nations. They also received a progress report on the situation in Serbia and Kosovo.
Finland is a candidate for a non-permanent membership of the UN Security Council for the two-year term of 2013–2014. The election will be held at the UN General Assembly in autumn 2012. The official Finnish campaign will be launched in autumn 2008.
The international exercise of the Finnish Defence Forces was also discussed preliminarily at the meeting. There will be no fundamental changes to the focuses of the exercise compared with the current year. The exercise plan for 2008 will be approved as normal in the meeting in November−December.
The current international co-operation projects aiming to remedy the shortfalls in air transport abilities in crisis management were also discussed at the meeting. There are currently a number of international projects based on joint acquisition and use of stock on the basis of hourly quota and exchange of hours. The entity of current projects consists of the Movement Coordination Centre Europe (MCCE), to be established in the Netherlands, the Air Transport & Air Refuelling and other Exchange Services (ATARES) arrangement, to be implemented in connection with MCCE, as well as the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) project.
Nordic defence policy co-operation was also on the agenda. The meeting by the Nordic defence ministers in the autumn will examine the current preparation of and the basis for the reports on the security and defence policy of each Nordic country.
It was stated in the meeting that Finland will demobilise the reinforced engineer company in the UNIFIL operation of the United Nations in accordance with the original participation decision by the end of 2007, and it is estimated that the construction targets set for the troop will have been reached by that time.
Further information: Ilkka Nordberg, First Secretary, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5282; Olli-Pekka Jalonen, Head of Unit, Ministry of Defence, tel. +358 9 1608 8154; Kimmo Lähdevirta, Head of Unit, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5480; and Juha Ottman, Head of Unit, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5784