President Halonen made surprise visit to Finnish troops in Afghanistan

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President Tarja Halonen has made a two-day surprise visit to Finnish troops serving with the ISAF forces in Northern Afghanistan.
      This was the first occasion on which the Finnish head of state visited the crisis management troops in Afghanistan.
      Halonen is scheduled to return to Finland this evening.
     
For security reasons, her trip was kept a secret until she was already on her return journey to Finland.
      Halonen met with Finnish soldiers in Mazar-i-Sharif. There are currently some 180 Finnish peacekeepers serving in Afghanistan.
      In addition to the Finnish troops, Halonen met the commander of the ISAF Regional Command North, the German Major General Hans-Werner Fritz, and she was also in video contact with the overall ISAF Commander, General David Petraeus.
      Petraeus was in the Afghan capital Kabul at the time.
     
Halonen's trip began on Tuesday morning. The security situation in Afghanistan is extremely tense and difficult at present, and foreign heads of state present a tempting target for insurgent action, hence the need for the utmost secrecy about a visit that had been planned for some time in advance. January was chosen as a suitable moment in part because the weather turns cold in Afghanistan at around the turn of the year, and this was thought likely to reduce the incidence of insurgent strikes.
     
Halonen is not the only leader to have chosen this time of year to make a visit to Afghanistan, since in December the political figures who visited the country under similar security blackouts included the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the British Prime Minister David Cameron, and US President Barack Obama.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  The slow-burning war of Ali Zayi (14.12.2010)

Links:
  The President of the Republic of Finland

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