Foreign Ministry official says relations with USA are in good shape

Pertti Torstila

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Pertti Torstila, Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, rejects the impression given in Parliamentary debate last week, that there would be problems in relations between Finland and the United States.
      Speaking on a television interview programme on Saturday morning, Torstila said that such a view is exaggerated; he characterised Finnish-American ties as "close and warm".
     
Torstila noted that the US Ambassador in Finland, Marilyn Ware, said recently in an interview with a Finnish newspaper that bilateral ties are in good shape.
      "What else can a Finn say to this than that it is certainly the case, since it comes from the mouth of the US Ambassador", Torstila said.
      In Parliament, the issue of relations between Finland and the United States was raised by the opposition National Coalition Party; party chairman Jyrki Katainen felt that the Finnish EU Presidency would have offered Finland an opportunity to improve Finnish-US relations.
     
Critics have pointed out that the Finnish President has not been granted a meeting with the US President for a long time, and that that it has been some time since the Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the US Secretary of State have met.
      "This is one method of calculating relations between the countries, but it does not necessarily correspond to today's reality", Torstila noted.
      He referred to the fact that political leaders of different countries today meet in many situations other than bilateral meetings.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  On keeping up good relations with the U.S. (14.5.2006)
  Prime Minister admits to "moderately long" gap in high level USA visits (15.5.2006)
  Finns increasingly critical of EU, NATO, USA, and immigration (9.1.2007)
  US representative says relations with Finland are in order (9.10.2006)
  President Halonen criticises proposed US terror legislation (26.9.2006)

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