Halonen, Vanhanen, and Stubb to attend EU-USA summit in early April

Finland’s top three foreign policy makers President Tarja Halonen, Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre), and Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (National Coalition Party) are all to travel to the the EU-USA summit that is to be held in Prague in early April.
      In Prague, the heads of states of the EU are also to meet Barack Obama, the new President of the United States, on April 5th.
      The division of duties between the threesome will be decided upon on the basis of the agenda, which currently appears to include energy security, climate change, and especially the financial crisis, which is one of those items that Finland wanted to be included.
     
The Prime Minister’s Office and that of the President of Finland both say that there will be no seating problem, as the EU summit is the responsibility of the President and the Prime Minister. Foreign Minister Stubb is to have a programme of his own, as Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, is also likely to attend the summit.
      At the 2005 summit in Brussels, President George W. Bush was the representative of the USA, while both President Halonen and PM Vanhanen represented Finland. In the summit Finland was given the floor for one minute, which President Halonen took, speaking about Russia and about the situation in the the Western Balkans.
      Four years ago, the then Member of the European Parliament Stubb said that it would be natural for the President to attend the meeting between the heads of states of the EU and the US President, as the summit clearly belongs to the foreign policy sphere.
     
On his trip to Europe in April, President Obama will also attend the meeting of G20 leaders in London as well as the NATO summit to be jointly hosted by France and Germany in early April.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign policy leaders shuttle around Africa (4.3.2009)

Links:
  G-20 major economies (Wikipedia)
  NATO Press Release 26.1.2009
  EU-USA Summit, 5.4.2009 (Czech Republic EU Presidency Site)
  The President of the Republic of Finland
  Office of the Prime Minister