Defence Ministry official says replacing cluster weapons would be expensive

Finland developing alternatives

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Replacing cluster weapons with some other weapons systems would probably be very expensive for Finland, says Olli-Pekka Jalonen, head of the international defence policy unit of the Finnish Ministry of Defence.
      Jalonen says that cluster weapons are the most cost-effective way to maintain Finland's striking power.
      Jalonen's unit represents the Defence Ministry at negotiations on a treaty to limit the use of cluster weapons. The discussions continue today, Wednesday, in Peru.
      Some of the countries taking part in the meeting want to allow the use of some cluster weapons, while others are pushing for a total ban. Finland is among the former, mainly because the weapons have been seen to play an important role in Finnish defence.
     
Jalonen says that defence capability is increasingly based on quality rather than quantity. Cluster weapons provide quality, as they are more lethal and more destructive than traditional shells.
      "The manpower of Finland's wartime forces is declining. The effectiveness of the forces must be maintained through more efficient weapons", he explains.
      Jalonen notes that the nature of combat has changed. Speed and mobility are increasingly important. For this reason, cluster weapons are more appropriate to modern warfare, whereas stationary land mines have lost much of their effectiveness.
      He adds that there are special characteristics in Finnish security policy that separate Finland from EU countries such as Ireland and Belgium, which support a total ban on cluster weapons.
     
Jalonen emphasises that cluster weapons are not intended to replace infantry land mines. Their idea is to maintain military effectiveness.
      He said that even if Finland had decided that it wants to keep the land mines, Finland would probably still have opted for cluster weapons as well.
     
Would Finnish defence collapse if Finland were to join a possible international treaty that bans weapons that are seen as essential to Finnish defence?
      "If no money is earmarked for possible more expensive systems, the credibility of Finland's defence capability would certainly decline", Jalonen cautiously answers.
      In his view, alternatives are being developed for cluster weapons, but they will probably be expensive. It is also difficult to anticipate when they would be available.
      "And the armaments industry is constantly inventing new devices that would make it possible to circumvent any cluster weapon ban."
     
Olli-Pekka Jalonen does not believe that the treaty will ban all cluster weapons. If it were to do so, he notes that many countries would opt out of it.
      The most important manufacturing countries of cluster weapons - the United States, China, and Russia - are not in the talks. Jalonen said that Finland agreed to take part because it takes the humanitarian problems linked with cluster weapons seriously.
      He adds that Finland learned something from the Ottawa Treaty banning infantry land mines.
      "Finland was not part of that process from the beginning. We were not able to influence the final outcome", he says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government: Finland does not endorse total ban of cluster weapons (14.5.2007)
  Cluster shell acquired by Finland banned in Norway (9.3.2007)
  Brigadier General Räty: Finland will not get cluster bombs that linger in terrain (23.2.2007)

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