Foreign Policy | Foreign Minister Valtonen Yelella on Essayah’s dismissal: “Let’s move forward”

Foreign minister Elina Valtonen (kok), the Finnish leadership has a really broad consensus on the most important issues of foreign policy, such as Finland’s value base, democracy, the rule of law, human rights and equality.

On Saturday Ylen Ykkösaamu according to Valtonen, who appeared, there have now been “differences” regarding individual decisions made by ministers.

“This has happened quite often in the past, so there is nothing unusual about this in itself,” Valtonen said.

In recent weeks, questions have been raised about the unity of the Finnish government’s foreign policy line, which have not subsided despite the politicians’ assurances.

First, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio (ps) left Finland out of the equality coalition for the reconstruction of Ukraine. Since then, Finland voted in the UN with Foreign Minister Valtonen’s decision in favor of declaring Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal.

President of the Republic Alexander Stubb exceptionally criticized the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for not being informed about Tavio’s decision. On the other hand, Valtonen’s UN decision has been criticized by the ruling parties Basic Finns and Christian Democrats.

Foreign policy the guidelines were discussed on Friday at the meeting of the President of the Republic and the Government’s Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy. President Stubb and the Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (kok) assured in their press conferences after the meeting that Finland’s foreign policy line is unified.

Just a few hours later, the chairman of the Christian Democrats, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah confirmed For the Democrat newspaper that he left a dissenting opinion on Finland’s voting decision in the UN in the minutes of the tp-utva.

Valtonen said on Yle that he doesn’t think it’s a big deal that Essayah disagrees with the individual vote. He also said that he greatly appreciates Essayah as a politician.

“An extremely experienced, capable person. [Olen] have done many kinds of collaborations with him over the years. I have no problem continuing to work with him. He disagrees with this matter, let’s move on.”

Valtonen also emphasized that the voting decision made at the UN should not be seen as a vote against Israel. He also stated that Israel is a very close partner for Finland, whose existence and security efforts are supported by Finland.

“It in no way excludes the fact that Israel currently has a government that operates in such a way that possibly also in the eyes of international law [se] has even committed war crimes. It is absolutely right for our credibility and global humanity to say it when this happens,” Valtonen said.