Professor and Minister disagree with criticism of President Halonen

Finland "justified in distancing itself from illegal war of aggression" in Iraq

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Criticism of the way that President Tarja Halonen has handled Finnish foreign policy has been sharply rejected by Professor Heikki Patomäki, who teaches international politics at the University of Helsinki.
      On Sunday Risto E.J. Penttilä, director of the Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA, wrote in Helsingin Sanomat that the President’s focus on idealistic global causes has taken place at the expense of Finland’s national foreign policy interests.
      According to Professor Patomäki, Finland has been quite successful in taking care of its relations with Moscow and Washington.
     
"I have seen no tensions or conflicts, or criticism even when there might have been a reason for it", Patomäki says.
      Penttilä wrote that relations with the United States and Russia are "thinner" than in a long time, and that nurturing the relationships has been harmed by the President’s focus on "healing the world" and globalisation issues.
      Professor Patomäki notes that compared with many other EU countries, Finland’s relations with the United States take a low profile. "Many other countries are targets of sharp criticism by the United States, but Finland has not been in this group."
     
Even the leak of Foreign Ministry documents on Finnish policy toward Iraq last year did not hurt Finnish-US relations, in Patomäki’s opinion.
      "Naturally the Americans may have been disappointed, because before that they counted Finland as part of the war coalition, even though Finland was not sending any troops there. But that disappointment was no problem for us. The war in Iraq was an illegal war of aggression, and Finland, as a Nordic Country committed to the principles of the UN, can justifiably distance itself from something like that."
      In Patomäki’s view Finland is more important to Russia than it is to the United States. The only criticism he has seen from Russia concerns the possibility that Finland might join NATO. "Russia does not want that, but it seems to me that Penttilä does."
     
Professor Patomäki sees Penttilä’s criticism of President Halonen as "the rhetoric of traditional political realism". The speaker knows what the world is like, and his political guiding light is to seek the favour of those who have the most power - above all, military power.
      The professor also disagrees with the view taken by Penttilä, that Halonen’s focus on globalisation issues would harm the promotion of Finnish interests.
      "One could say with equal justification that it is in Finland’s national interest to seek to reform global administration. Many conflicts in the South - genocides, civil wars, famines - are the result of development in the world economy, which is constantly going in a worse direction. Reforming it is also in the Finnish national interest", Professor Patomäki says.
     
Also rejecting Penttilä’s criticism of President Halonen’s foreign policy priorities was Environment Minister Jan-Erik Enestam, who is the chairman of the Swedish People’s Party, the smallest partner in Finland’s coalition government.
      During an ongoing visit to the United States, Enestam said that the two-tier model in Finnish foreign policy has worked well, although he added that some "fine tuning" might be called for.
      Enestam also expressed surprise at the timing of Penttilä’s criticism. He thought that perhaps Penttilä and others close to Finnish business interests "want to prepare for the presidential elections well ahead of time".
     
Enestam’s visit to the United States is the first by a Finnish Minister of the Environment in a decade. He is holding talks with US officials on a number of issues, including the environmental aspects of the Northern Dimension programme.
      Finland hopes that the United States might become more involved in the financing of environmental projects in Northeastern Russia. So far the US has been interested mainly in helping Russia deal with nuclear waste.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Halonen responds to criticism: Supporting the poor is in Finland’s interest (27.4.2004)
  Halonen criticised as global do-gooder; PM Vanhanen comes to President’s defence (26.4.2004)

Helsingin Sanomat