Condoleezza Rice invites Alexander Stubb to Washington

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Finland’s new Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) was invited to Washington on Thursday. The invitation was extended by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with whom Stubb had lunch during the international Iraq conference in Stockholm.
      “[Swedish Foreign Minister] Carl Bildt was friendly enough to arrange it so we were at the same table”, Stubb told reporters after the lunch.
     
Sitting at the same table were the Iraqi foreign and finance ministers, as well as foreign ministers form Italy, Jordan, and Georgia, as well as Sweden’s Development Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson, and Ibrahim Gambari, a close aide of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
      Stubb met the US Secretary of State for the first time. He was quite impressed by Rice. “She is pleasant, sharp, social, and analytical.”
      The two also immediately found something in common: “Rice was born in a southern state, and I studied in South Carolina for four years. Rice became excited when she heard that I had played golf at the national team level. She proposed that we play when we meet. She said that she had played for three years.”
     
During the lunch, Rice proposed a meeting in Washington.
      “We agreed that I should travel to Washington soon. We found three possible dates in our calendars. Hopefully I will have been in Washington by the end of July.”
     
Stubb says that relations with the United States are of primary importance to Finland.
      “Finland is a small country, while the united States is big, and a very important player in world politics. It is very important that we have good relations. Finland and the United States also have a common line on many different questions.”
      “I am pro-USA”, Stubb added.
      Stubb also invited the Iraqi Foreign Minister to Finland. “Finland and Iraq have traditionally had good relations.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kanerva meets Rice in Washington, praises Finnish-US relations (12.2.2998)

Helsingin Sanomat