Mr. Europe, I presume

Cartoon controversy forms backdrop of Prime Minister Vanhanen’s visit to Kuwait

print this

By Antti Blåfield
     
      It was a somewhat unsettling beginning to the week. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen flew to Kuwait to meet with the new Emir, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
      The one-day visit was officially an export promotion trip. The Finnish military equipment manufacturer Patria is negotiating an important deal on supplying armoured personnel carriers to Kuwait, and the company had asked the Prime Minister to help in the export effort.
      But why in the world did the Finnish Prime Minister have to go selling military materiel to Kuwait now that the conflict between the Christian West and the Muslim world had turned violent? Diplomatic missions belonging to Denmark - and those of a few other countries - had become targets of attack in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran.
     
Surely, this should be a time  to talk about peace and not weapons with the political leaders of the Islamic world.
      In fact, peace was a topic of discussion in Kuwait. Alongside the military hardware deal, there was talk about the dispute that emerged over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
      Vanhanen did not reveal much about the discussions in his comments to the Finnish News Agency. "Finland’s role is that we can do what we have done: we have respected the feelings of the Muslims. This is something that I consider very important."
      The statement brought another wave of indignation: is there really nothing else to say, other than to praise oneself?
      Political scientist Prof. Tuomas Forsberg of the University of Helsinki offers this comparison: "Imagine that the Russians were persecuting us over some cartoon, and the Danish comment would be that it’s good that we haven’t done anything like this; the Russians should not be annoyed."
     
After the visit, Vanhanen did not want to issue any more statements about the meeting, or about Finnish policy on the crisis. However, the trip was significantly different from what it appeared to be.
      The Finnish Prime Minister had the opportunity to meet with the political leadership of a key Arab country right when the cartoons dispute appeared to be getting out of control, and the opportunity was taken. When the crisis deepened, it was decided that trip - which had been under preparation for some time - should go ahead as quickly as possible. The Prime Minister of a Nordic nation would have the possibility in Kuwait to discuss our values and to communicate messages.
     
Before the trip to Kuwait, Vanhanen was in touch with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, allowing the Finnish PM to bring political leaders in the Middle East a message from Denmark’s political leadership as well.
      "Vanhanen’s trip and its content were highly surprising in the light of the tradition of Finnish foreign policy", said Pertti Joenniemi, who works as a researcher at the Danish Institute of International Relations. He has observed that Vanhanen’s trip had been made note of in Denmark. "It was a clear plus for Finland."
     
But we should remember that it was not just the dour prime minister of the remote country of Finland who jetted off to Kuwait; Vanhanen is also a member of the leading troika of the European Union.
      At the beginning of the year, Matti Vanhanen became one of the key political leaders of the EU, when Finland joined the troika, which steers the EU’s foreign policy. The members include the holder of the rotating EU Presidency, as well as the previous and next holders. The EU Presidency will pass from Austria to Finland at the beginning of July.
     
Finland’s long-term policy line has been to stay back in the shadows or to focus on protecting our own interests.
      Finland’s self-centred - and some might say cynical - line can be said to have begun in 1831 when soldiers of the Finnish Guard marched, with crowds cheering, onto a ship in the harbour of Helsinki to go and help put down the first Polish rebellion. The Poles had risen against the Russian Empire in order to become independent.
      The second Polish uprising a generation later was a more difficult pill for the Finns. It was the first time that the country was divided politically. J.V. Snellman underscored loyalty to the Russian Czar. The liberals emphasised the rights of the Polish people.
     
Snellman’s policy of restraint and self-discipline was restored to the political canon after the Continuation War of 1941-44, when Finland had to accommodate the views of the Soviet Union. The restraint was a kind of self-defence but it also contained a measure of honour: it is best not incite anyone else to do something which one cannot stick with as well.
      This kind of thinking labelled the attitude of President Mauno Koivisto towards the Baltic Countries, which were trying to get their independence restored.
     
Finland’s policy lines have not always been appreciated in Denmark; on the contrary, Finland has been labelled a toady of the Soviet Union.
      Danes have snickered at Finnish self-censorship and caution. Now that they stepped into a minefield, because the head of the culture desk of the newspaper Jyllands-Posten decided to test the limits of the self-censorship of cartoonists, Finland unexpectedly ended up being one of the main channels for the Danish Prime Minister to get his message out.
      Finland became important, because it was available. Norway has a good reputation in the Middle East, but now it was a party to the uproar over the caricatures, because a Christian newspaper in Norway had also published the cartoons that so offended Muslims.
      As for Sweden, Denmark does not like to ask the Swedes for help, because relations between the two countries are burdened by the constant struggle over dominance in the Nordic region.
      An even more important reason is that the political leaders of Sweden and Denmark have clashed sharply over immigration policy issues. Denmark does not want to give credence to the impression of Sweden as a moral superpower.
     
Another factor boosting the status of the Finnish Prime Minister in the Muslim world is that the Finnish European Commissioner, Olli Rehn, dared in the midst of the EU’s constitution crisis last year to demand that the EU member states adhere to their promise to Turkey to begin membership negotiations.
      In addition, President Martti Ahtisaari is doing mediation work in Kosovo, on the border between the Christian and Islamic worlds.
     
It has been typical for Finland that foreign policy has also defined domestic policy. In Denmark, it is just the opposite, and this is also reflected in the cartoon crisis.
      Whereas the Finnish policy line has been defined by the country's relationship with Russia, the Danish identity has been moulded by the relationship with Germany and the nobility.
      As the result of losing a war to Germany in 1864, Danish burghers and peasants took control. The German nobility was thrown out, and the rights of the country’s own nobles and the monarchy were reduced. Already at that time, the farmers’ party, Venstre, was a strong political power. Venstre is the party of the present Danish PM.
      Ever since those days, the Danes have protected their right to control their own lives. This is why Denmark has constantly had an obstructionist attitude in the European Union.
      Denmark’s national identity leans on Christian values, and also for this reason, it is easy to stoke up xenophobic sentiments in Denmark. The cheerful religiosity of the Danes suddenly turned to suspicion and hostility toward strangers of a different religion, and this popular opinion also guides Denmark’s foreign policy. For instance, Denmark is taking part in the Iraq war alongside the United States.
     
The cartoons might not have caused a crisis like this in Denmark, had the relationship between public opinion and the political leadership and the local Muslim communities been in good shape.
      "With Sweden and Finland it is worth noting that local Muslim communities have acted in a conciliatory manner, and that also has an effect on the positions taken by governments", says Jaakko Blomberg, a veteran civil servant at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, who retired in the autumn.
      The lines taken by Finland and Sweden have been cautious in a similar manner. So far, the cartoons have not been published in either country.
      Sweden and Denmark have both received large numbers of immigrants, but in Sweden, xenophobia has not raised its head like it has in Denmark. "Sweden has skilfully avoided these kinds of traps. There immigration thematics have not been politicised", says Pertti Joenniemi.
     
Moderation in relations with immigrants has also given Finland space in which to operate.
      This might change, however, if the populist True Finns party manages to utilise the opportunity offered by the recent presidential elections to rise from the flyweight series to the status of a party that is to be taken seriously.
      The internal divisions among Muslims in Finland, between the Tartars who have lived here for 100 years and the more recent immigrants, are becoming more apparent as well. Even here we will have to grow accustomed to hard-line Muslims who are not averse to publicity.
     
However, the seasoned diplomat is looking further ahead already.
      "This is increasingly falling into the lap of the EU", Blomberg predicts. The EU became a party to the crisis on Monday at the latest, when Iran said that it is considering imposing a trade embargo on Denmark. The EU’s Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, responded by saying that the threat was aimed at the entire EU.
      "The road ahead is not easy", Blomberg says. "This kind of setup might only encourage Iran to be defiant, no matter what it costs. In that situation, money is of no importance."
      Finland can no longer remain on the sidelines. "We must also be more sharply-focused than before", Blomberg argues.
     
Finland knows all about games of power politics between great states, but what is our view when freedom of expression and religious conviction are pitted against each other?
      "Where is the 'leadership of values' that rose to the forefront during the presidential election?" Forsberg asks. "This, if anything, would be an appropriate place for value leadership."
     
Blomberg emphasises the importance of public diplomacy. "One ingenious act was, for instance, the article by Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the International Herald Tribune." The prime ministers urged all Christians and Muslims to respect each other and to show moderation.
      Blomberg feels that Vanhanen’s trip to Kuwait came at exactly the right time in this respect. We are no longer on the sidelines defending our own interests. Instead, our cautious and grey prime minister rushed off to the front line.
      In fact, we never really were on the sidelines. When the battalion of the Finnish Guard took part in the victory parade in Warsaw to celebrate the victory over the Polish rebels, the Finnish soldiers did not march for their own interests; instead, the fresh member-state of a union led by the Russian Czar wanted to express its solidarity to the union.
      We are again in a united front.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.2.2006


Previously in HS International Edition:
  PM Vanhanen believes Finland acted correctly over cartoon dispute (7.2.2006)

ANTTI BLÅFIELD / Helsingin Sanomat
antti.blafield@hs.fi