HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------
Contemplating NATO role, Finnish leader travels to US Sunday, 14-Apr-2002 5:30AM����Story from AFP / Paal Aarsaether Copyright 2002 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) HELSINKI, April 14 (AFP) - Finnish President Tarja Halonen travels to the United States this week for talks with President George W. Bush expected to center on the small Nordic state's delicate links with NATO and other security issues, officials said. "The topics they will discuss are the situation in the Middle East, Afghanistan and security matters including NATO," Halonen's spokesperson Maria Romantschuk said. Halonen arrives in Washington Sunday and was scheduled to hold talks with Bush Tuesday. The Finnish leader was also to meet with other US administration officials and members of Congress during her three-day official visit starting Monday. Her trip to the United States comes amid a growing debate in Finland on whether the country, historically neutral and with deep but ambivalent ties with nearby Russia, should join the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Long thought unthinkable, Finnish membership in NATO is now a subject of open political discussion fueled by the alliance's favorable stance on admission for the Baltic states and by Finland's participation in NATO-led operations in recent years. Halonen, a former trade union lawyer and gay and pacifist activist, has strong influence in Finnish public opinion but is "struggling" with the NATO issue, explained Tomas Ries, senior researcher at Finland's Defense College. "It appears that in her heart she is skeptical of NATO, but her intellect -- she is intelligent and pragmatic -- is debating with her instincts, making her reconsider," Ries said. In a recent poll, 74 percent of Finns said they were against NATO membership, a figure consistent with similar surveys conducted over the past decade. But while the country's leading political parties are quietly staking out their positions on the issue, there has been general agreement not to bring it to the fore of public discourse until after elections next year. Attitudes "might change quickly" when and if the country's leading political voices make NATO membership an election issue, Ries said. On a visit to Moscow earlier this year, Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen promised Russian President Vladimir Putin that Finland would remain neutral for at least two more years. NATO's eastward expansion however could leave Finland regionally isolated on security matters -- Sweden, too, is examining whether or not to join the alliance -- and will also affect Finnish views on the issue, according to Communications Minister Kimmo Sasi. "My forecast is that if our foreign policy position at that time will be that we have to equate ourselves with Albania and Armenia, it is quite possible that the government will then draw the conclusion that NATO membership is in the Finnish national interest," Sasi said recently on a television program. Defense Minister Jan-Erik Enestam agreed with that view. "We should ask ourselves the question: would it be more preferable for Finland to sit at the table where the real decisions are made or not?" he asked. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
