FOOD SECURITY: FINLAND COMMITTED TO INCREASING

UNCLAS HELSINKI 000329 FOR COUNSELOR CHERYL MILLS EUR/ERA FOR EMILY WILLIAMS EEB/TPP/MTAA/ABT FOR GARY CLEMENT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAGR EAID EI ETRD FI SUBJECT: FOOD SECURITY: FINLAND COMMITTED TO INCREASING CONTRIBUTIONS IN PRINCIPLE REF: STATE 89970 (SBU) Post delivered the demarche as requested in reftel to Director Pertti Anttinen in the MFA Department for Development Policy and to Director General Veli-Pekka Talvela in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Talvela, while reinforcing Finland's commitment to food security, deferred to the MFA which controls the development budget. Anttinen reacted positively to a nonpaper containing points from reftel, which he had already passed to his Director General. While the ministry was still in the process of making exact budget calculations in the aftermath of the previous week's budget talks among the governing coalition parties, Anttinen stated that Finland is committed to increasing its share of financing for food security in line with its broad goal of increasing funding of development assistance in multilateral and bilateral programs. The ministry was still in the process of calculating exact budgetary allocations for 2010 and beyond, so he could not promise an exact amount at this time. Anttinen concluded by noting that he expected food security to be discussed during U.S.-EU talks next week in Brussels as part of Finland's Transatlantic Development Partnership initiative. ORECK