In the opinion of Mikko Savola, Member of Parliament for the Center and vice-chairman of the parliament’s defense committee, the withdrawal from the Ottawa agreement must be discussed in connection with the upcoming defense report.
Mikko Savola has also served as Minister of Defense. Henri Kärkkäinen
Savola reminds that there have been particularly emphatic statements from the ranks of the main government party about the withdrawal from the international agreement banning anti-personnel mines.
– Representative colleague and member of the defense committee Jarno Limnéll has proposed withdrawing from the Ottawa agreement. It has also been supported by other MPs of the coalition. It must be remembered that bringing the matter to the parliament for a decision is completely in the hands of the coalition.
– The coalition has the entire leadership of foreign and security policy. Värisuora has the position of the President of the Republic as well as the portfolios of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Defense. So I ask, do Orpo, Valtonen and Häkkänen intend to bring the government’s motion to withdraw from the Ottawa agreement to parliament? The right place to outline the issue is the defense report that will be considered in the fall, Savola states.
Savola promises to support the proposal to withdraw from the agreement, if such a proposal is brought to parliament.
In Savola’s opinion, joining the Ottawa agreement was a wrong decision at the time.
– The project was driven particularly strongly by the president of the republic at the time Tarja Halonen and the agreement was ratified by the prime minister Jyrki Katainen under the leadership of the (kok) government, says Savola.
At that time, at the end of 2011, Savola himself voted against the ratification of the agreement.
– Having received pioneer education in Keuruu, I wonder about the arguments that were used at that time to give up anti-personnel mines. In Finland, mines were used to block, i.e. to slow down the enemy’s advance, to cause losses and to direct them to more favorable targets for defense. In the Finnish containment, each mine was marked exactly on the terrain and thus clearing them would be possible. Our anti-personnel mines had nothing to do with civilian casualties in third countries. In addition, our clearing pioneer activity is the best in the world.
– Fortunately, the Defense Forces received material to replace the anti-personnel mines at that time. However, even the materials that replace anti-personnel mines do not replace the cheapness and strong deterrence of anti-personnel mines, says Savola.
#Leaving #agreement #hands #ruling #coalition
