Häkämies: Russia remains key security challenge for Finland

Election irregularities could prove difficult for international forces in Afghanistan

Jyri Häkämies

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Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) continues to see Russia as a triple challenge for Finnish security. In his view nobody has shown where this assessment from two years ago would be incorrect.
      Häkämies made a speech in Washington in 2007 in which he underscored the importance of Russia in Finnish security considerations. On Monday next week he travels to Washington and expects Russia to come up again.
     
“At that time I felt that Russia was making a return to being a regional great power at the very least, that the Russians have great power thinking in that way”, Häkämies said on Wednesday.
      The speech given by Häkämies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on September 6th, 2007 made headlines in Finland, when the Minister of Defence said that the three main security challenges for Finland are “Russia, Russia, and Russia”.
      He also said that he expects the importance of the Baltic Sea region to grow in the coming years, as it forms one of the main routes for Russian energy exports. Now, however, he adheres to the policy line of the whole government in seeing the planned Baltic Sea gas pipeline as an environment issue, without new security risks.
     
This time, Häkämies will not hold any speeches while in Washington. He has scheduled meetings with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Presidential security advisor James Jones, and US foreign policy veteran Henry Kissinger.
      Afghanistan will be “undoubtedly on the agenda”, Häkämies said. However, he expects possible requests from the US to deploy additional Finnish forces in Afghanistan to “proceed through other routes”.
     
Reports of extensive fraud in the first round of Afghanistan’s elections on August 20th are causing “an extremely difficult situation” for the international aid operation in Afghanistan in Häkämies’s view.
      He noted that the extensive support in the Finnish Parliament for the temporary increase in Finland’s deployment in the ISAF forces was based specifically on the view that the elections must take place.
      “The ISAF operation requires that there be a legal government in the country”, he said, hoping for further reports about the elections before the international community draws any conclusions.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Häkämies in Washington: Russia Finland´s greatest challenge (7.9.2009)

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