Former Foreign Minister Tuomioja: Foreign policy leadership adrift

Pertti Paasio also lashes out at Stubb

Erkki Tuomioja

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The public rebuke by Minister of Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) by Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen (Centre) during the weekend is seen by former Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja (SDP) as an indication that “Finland’s foreign policy leadership is adrift, and a common policy line cannot be found even in the Foreign Ministry”.
     Tuomioja was commenting on Väyrynen’s article in Sunday’s Helsingin Sanomat, in which he criticised the publication of comments he had solicited on international politics from Finnish ambassadors. A selection of the comments were published by Helsingin Sanomat a week ago Sunday (and in the weekly section of HS International Edition). The ambassadors themselves were not identified.
     Tuomioja says that this time, the discord is Stubb’s fault, and not Väyrynen’s. According to Tuomioja, Stubb’s “need for raising his personal profile, and his childish enthusiasm for promoting the NATO goals of the National Coalition Party have caused amazement outside of Finland as well”.
     
Tuomioja finds it unacceptable that members of the National Coalition Party put forward personal and party political views while in office in a way that makes outsiders see them as part of the government policy line. This is what happens when Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) does not take issue with it. Tuomioja feels that the Prime Minister “lacks a grip on matters”.
     While he defends Väyrynen’s views in this issue, Tuomioja feels that he is not right about everything. For instance, Tuomioja does not agree with Väyrynen’s views of the EU, nor does he feel that Stubb is “especially European”, saying that Stubb looks at the EU “through American glasses”.
     In his comments on Finland’s foreign policy leaders, Tuomioja makes no mention of President Tarja Halonen.
     
Another Social Democratic former Foreign Minister, Pertti Paasio, joined the critics of Foreign Minister Stubb.
      Commenting on Stubb’s actions in the Centre Party online publication Verkkoapila, Paasio said that he hopes that the publication of reports by ambassadors will not become a new practice.
     
“This is our new open foreign policy”, Stubb said on Sunday to the Finnish News Agency STT, and promised that more analyses by ambassadors would be made public in the future.
     “Openness is a good thing, but diplomacy also includes confidentiality”, Paasio wrote. He warned that people might become hesitant to speak with ambassadors if there is a risk that the comments might be made public.
     Paasio urges the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee to ask Stubb if there really are plans to change procedures.
     
The Foreign Affairs Committee’s chairman, Pertti Salolainen (Nat. Coalition Party), said on Monday that the Foreign Affairs Committee does not give orders to the Foreign Ministry.
     In Salolainen’s view, the publication of ambassadors’ assessments involves an internal practice of the Foreign Ministry. “It is not our business”, he said to Verkkoapila.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Policy differences emerge between ministers at Foreign Ministry (13.10.2008)
  Diplomatic confessions (5.10.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat