The Argentine Minister of Defense, Jorge Taiana, bade farewell this morning at the I Air Brigade «El Palomar» to a new contingent of Blue Helmets that left for Cyprus to carry out the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission (UNFICYP), in that Mediterranean island.
«In this Peacekeeping Mission we have a specific task, that of acting as a peacekeeping force between two sectors to avoid incidents and the resumption of hostilities, but we are also going mainly to demonstrate the commitment of the Argentine Republic with the multilateral system of the United Nations», said Taiana in front of the contingent of Blue Helmets present.
Then he added: «We believe in international law, we believe in the peaceful settlement of disputes and that is why we also ask for dialogue so that the British sit down, once and for all, to talk about the sovereignty dispute in Malvinas».
The deployment involves a total of 222 men and women from the Armed Forces, of which 189 correspond to Task Force 61 (134 from the Army, 49 from the Navy, 5 from the Argentine Air Force, and 1 deputy chief of Contingent). In addition, there are 26 troops corresponding to the Air Unit (called UNFLIGHT 59) and 7 «Military Observers and Liaison Officers (MO/LO)».
On this occasion, the Chief of the Argentine Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lieutenant General Juan Martín Paleo, will be part of the flight to carry out an «in situ» inspection of the Argentine contingent’s handover process.
The Argentine Air Force, as agreed with the UN, will be in charge of the transfer of personnel and cargo that is part of the Argentine Joint Contingent in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), a mission carried out with its Boeing 737-700 (T-99). The next flights will depart on January 26 and February 4.
Argentina is the country with the second largest number of blue helmet troops to the United Nations forces that are supporting this mission.
It is worth mentioning that more than 10% of the personnel to be deployed are women, integrated in all the roles required by the United Nations, both as members of the senior staff with the mission of advising the Head of the Task Force and in the field, where they perform patrol activities, operate special equipment and vehicles or carry out observation missions to the opposing forces.
The FTA fulfills the mission of controlling the assigned sector to prevent further clashes, thus occupying a buffer zone to monitor ceasefire lines, develop humanitarian activities and support the rest of the mission in all planned activities in order to contribute to the maintenance of peace and the United Nations peacekeeping mandate in Cyprus.
