Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) has endorsed the recent remarks by President Tarja Halonen about the leadership of Finland's foreign and security policy.
Speaking on YLE's TV News on Tuesday, Vanhanen noted that traditionally matters of defence policy have been subordinated to foreign and security questions. Vanhanen's comments were a follow-up to the President's own views in a YLE interview on Saturday, in which she stated that responsibility within the government for foreign policy rested with the Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Under the terms of the current constitution, the President directs Finland's foreign and security policy in cooperation with the government of the day.
The sequence of comments can be seen as a reprimand of sorts for Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies (National Coalition) in the wake of his speech in Washington, which was deemed in part at least to have been "party politics" from the National Coalition Party rather than a reflection of mainstream Finnish foreign policy doctrines.
Häkämies has defended his right to speak up, and has pointed out that he is after all a full member of the government's foreign and security policy committee.
