FINLAND: MISSILE DEFENSE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OUTREACH

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000187

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/NCE, EUR/PRA - MAZEVEDO, EUR/PPD -
TCORN, CI/MDSP - STEVEN ROSENKRANTZ, NSC - MAHAYWARD, MDA -
NANCY MORGAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/14/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR PL EZ RU FI
SUBJECT: FINLAND: MISSILE DEFENSE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OUTREACH

REF: A. HELSINKI 162


B. HELSINKI 144

C. EMBASSY HELSINKI - PEKALA EMAIL 7 MARCH 2007

D. STATE 30480

E. STATE 21640

Classified By: POLCHIEF GREGORY THOME FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) The public reaction in Finland to US missile defense
plans in Eastern Europe and Russian misrepresentations of
them have been largely muted. Several editorials and
comments from leading politicians appeared in the immediate
aftermath of Putin's Munich speech, but very few of these
directly addressed the missile defense issue. (Many even
acknowledged the positive impact of SecDef Gates' measured
response.) The lack of public commentary is somewhat odd,
given that Finland will hold parliamentary elections on
March 18 and candidates have been eagerly opining
(oftentimes inaccurately) on everything from the trans-
Atlantic relationship to cluster bombs to the War on
Terror. Given the uninformed or unhelpful commentary that
has emerged regarding these issues, we are pleased that
missile defense has run largely under the media's radar
screen.


2. (C) The GOF, for its part, has made clear that missile
defense is not a matter for Finland to address, but rather
a bilateral issue between the Czech and Polish Governments
and the US. Senior Finnish officials have welcomed wide
discussions of the issue within NATO and have thanked us
for sharing information with key non-NATO partners such as
Finland. In response to our demarche (Ref E),Foreign
Minister Erkki Tuomioja also issued a helpful statement
"rejecting" Russian misrepresentations and threats against
Poland and the Czech Republic (see Refs A-C).


3. (C) Thus far, we have focused our outreach efforts on
ensuring that the missile defense issue does not blossom
into a campaign controversy and on ensuring that key
players have the facts. Thus far, in addition to briefing
MFA officials, we have:

-- privately briefed candidates and political strategists
in the Center, SDP, and Green parties;

-- shared our demarche points with key advisors in the
office of the Prime Minister;

-- shared facts with the acting foreign editor of
Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's largest and most influential
daily;

-- and laid out US views to a senior researcher at the
Helsinki University's Aleksanteri Institute, one of the
largest Russia-focused think tanks in Europe.


4. (C) Going forward, Embassy believes that it is best to
continue to brief key opinion makers behind-the-scenes,
rather than to raise the missile defense issue publicly
during election season and risk making an issue out of what
has been a non-issue.


5. (U) Overall Embassy POC for missile defense issues is
PolChief Gregory Thome, tel.: 358-9-6162-5478; unclass e-
mail: thomegd@state.gov.
HYATT