FINLAND: BRIEF ON ICJ ADVISORY OPINION

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000132 SIPDIS EUR/NB FOR MIGUEL RODRIGUES E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/07/2019 TAGS: AORC PREL ICJ KV FI SUBJECT: FINLAND: BRIEF ON ICJ ADVISORY OPINION REF: A. STATE 29385 ¶B. STATE 11928 ¶C. 08 STATE 127443 ¶D. 08 HELSINKI 00457 Classified By: PolChief Scott Brandon for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) On April 3, PolOff met with Sari Makela, Finnish MFA Legal Counselor and Tony Paso, Counselor, Unit for EU Enlargement and Western Balkans (Kosovo & Serbia). Makela said that the Government of Finland (GoF) intends to submit a brief to the ICJ by April 17. She stated that the main legal argument will be, as she phrased it,"that territorial integrity can be overwritten in exceptional cases as a response to situations where opportunities for internal determination cannot be exercised in a meaningful way creating the need for external determination or secession." She acknowledged that this is an unusual case, factually, and added that should be taken into account. Makela also stated that Serbia sent 80 letters this winter looking for support for their side of the legal argument. ¶2. (SBU) Separately, Paso noted that the Finnish Parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee will be visiting Kosovo and Serbia in approximately three weeks. A new Finnish Charge went out 3 days ago as part of the status upgrade from Finnish Mission to Finnish Embassy at the beginning of February. The Embassy will be overseen from Sofia instead of Belgrade going forward. Paso said that Finnish interest in Serbia is picking up as well. He indicated that the Finnish Prime Minister is in the very the early stages of planning a Kosovo visit. BUTLER