Finns seem to relish Foreign Minister Stubb’s policy of transparency

Audience at Book Fair unanimously voted for more open foreign policy

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In a debate organised by Helsingin Sanomat at the Helsinki Book Fair on Thursday, Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party) was interviewed by writer Jari Tervo and journalist Pekka Hakala.
      An advocate of a new kind of open foreign policy, Stubb was asked questions as to his views with respect to Russia.
      The questions included for example: Is Russia really a democracy? Is your faith in the democratic development just groundless optimism?
      ”Russia is gradually becoming a democracy”, Stubb replied.
     
In his view, Russia’s democratic development has suffered occasional setbacks, but in ten years the country will be considerably more democratic than today.
      According to the Foreign Minister, the present Russia has undergone three phases. After former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, his successor Vladimir Putin stabilised the country, while the new president Dmitri Medvedev will bring into the country internationality, democratic reforms, and openness.
      Stubb was pressed to say who really is pulling the strings in Russia. ”The troika of Putin, Medvedev, and [Sergei] Lavrov”, he answered, meaning the Prime Minister, the President, and the Foreign Minister.
      Stubb noted further that according to an analysis made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, internal differences exist between the views of the conservatives and those of the reformists within the Kremlin (the Russian government). These differences are likely to affect the country’s foreign policy.
      Tervo and Hakala regarded as astonishing Stubb’s opinion that the war in Georgia was a turning point.
     
Stubb pointed out that he believed that there have been four turning points since 1990: the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the USA in 2001, the 080808 war in Georgia, and the ongoing international financial crisis.
      ”There has been some talk about Francis Fukuyama’s belief in the end of history, but it has not happened”, Stubb said.
      Fukuyama is the author of The End of History and the Last Man, in which he argued that the progression of human history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, predicting the eventual global triumph of political and economic liberalism.
     
At the end, the audience was allowed to vote whether or not the new openness of foreign policy is a good thing.
      After people almost unanimously replied ”Yes”, Stubb said that he felt relieved.
      Next, the audience was asked whether Russia is now more democratic than in 1991. The answer was again a resounding ”Yes”.
      ”Two wins in a row”, Stubb observed drily.
      Author Jari Tervo predicted that Stubb would be giving lectures on Russia’s democratic development repeatedly over the next decade.
      Stubb bet Tervo a bottle of Russian champagne that in ten years Russia will be a more democratic place.
     
     
The Helsinki Book Fair runs through Sunday at the Fair Centre in Pasila. Opening times are: Friday 10-20, Saturday & Sunday 10-18.


Links:
  Helsinki Book Fair, 23.-26.10.2008

Helsingin Sanomat