Foreign Ministry: SUPO Africa operation part of inter-ministerial cooperation

“Defending Finnish interests starts far from physical borders”

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The planned deployment of detectives of the Security Police (SUPO) to various African capitals is part of cooperation between the Foreign Ministry and other branches of government.
      “It is not simply an operation of the Ministry of the Interior and SUPO, which is part of it”, says Foreign Ministry Secretary of State Pekka Torstila.
      Torstila was commenting on Monday’s news item in Helsingin Sanomat about SUPO’s plans to send detectives and other employees to five capitals in North and East Africa as part of the effort to fight terrorism.
     
Torstila says that SUPO’s Africa plan involves a report, which was drawn up by the Foreign Ministry according to stipulations in the government’s policy programme, examining how the services offered by Finnish diplomatic missions link up with the expectations of officials, citizens, and business.
      “We wish to welcome all official help from those experts that are willing to work together with us. Most of our embassies are small, and our officials often have to deal with matters from another branch of administration, in which their expertise is not enough.”
      Torstila emphasises that when they are stationed at diplomatic missions abroad, the SUPO personnel will be under the authority of the head of the mission.
     
“In the time of globalisation the defence of Finnish interests begins far from the physical borders of our country. Borders have opened up, and with it, new concerns have come. We want to react to possible problems as early as we can”, Torstila says.
      In the Foreign Ministry report, key government ministries are the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for Employment and the Economy, as well as the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Defence.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish Security Police hope to send agents to Africa (19.10.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat