General Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff paid a three days' visit to Finland from 15th to 17th April, at the invitation of the Finnish chief of defence, Admiral Juhani Kaskeala.
General Gagor was presented tasks, functioning and engagement into foreign missions of the Finnish Armed Forces. General Gagor and Admiral Kaskeala discussed bolstering Polish-Finnish bilateral cooperation. As they agreed, the common ground for it may be the deployment of AMV Patria in the armies of the two countries. It is planned to establish “the association of AMV users”, as such a form of cooperation would facilitate the purchase of equipment and spare parts, and the potential modernization of the vehicle. In the future, also other AMV users, e.g. Slovenia and Croatia, could join the association. During the second day of the visit, General Gagor got acquainted with the recruitment and training systems of airmen in the Finnish Air Forces and later, was presented Hawk combat aircraft in action, and a new cargo aircraft NH-90 deployed in the Finnish Armed Force. He as well observed training of career soldiers on the Pahkajarvi training ground. The agenda of the visit also included the presentation of logistic, medical support, antiaircraft and liaison units, and also functioning of the modern commanding system based on network-centric solutions. On the last day, on 17th April, G±gor met with the Finnish Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies at the Finnish MOD seat where they talked about European security issues, foreign operations with a particular focus on EUFOR mission in Chad, and a possible cooperation of the land and air forces of both states.
