Defence Ministers to discuss Arctic security

Serdjukov will discuss security challenges in Northern Europe and particulary in the Arctic with the Finnish Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies.

The two defence ministers will also put multilateral rescue exercises on the agenda during the meetings, according to the portal of the Finnish Ministry of Defence.

During the visit Minister of Defence Serdjukov will also meet with the President of the Republic Tarja Halonen and with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, General Ari Puheloinen.

On Wednesday, the Office of Finland’s Prime Minister appointed a working group to prepare a report on Finland’s policy for the Arctic region. The report is to be submitted to Parliament during the spring session. Parliament has required that guidelines concerning Finland’s policy for the Arctic region be drawn up.

The report will focus on external relations in the Arctic region. The time is now right for drawing up the report as the overall political and economic importance of the region is growing due to factors such as the region’s natural resources and northern sea routes becoming passable as a result of climate change. In addition, the EU is now also in the process of formulating its Arctic policy, and Finland should provide a strong input into it.

The chair of the working group is State Under-Secretary for EU Affairs Jukka Salovaara from the Prime Minister’s Office and vice-chair of the group is Deputy Director General Hanna Lehtinen from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Members of the working group constitute specialists from a number of ministries.