Prime Minister Sipilä after the inauguration of the new President of the United States

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä says that one of the priorities in the Finnish Government’s foreign policy is to forge closer relations with the United States also during President Trump’s and Vice-President Pence’s newly commenced government term. Finland also considers it important that the relations between the European Union and the United States remain strong.

‘The following was entered in our Government Programme in May 2015: The Government will strengthen extensive trans-Atlantic cooperation at both bilateral and EU levels,’ Prime Minister Sipilä commented on Friday 20 January after the new President, Donald Trump, held his inauguration speech.

'The United States is an important partner for Finland and we believe that cooperation between our two countries will continue on a solid basis. We are already actively forming contacts with the new administration,’ the Prime Minister noted.

Sipilä says, however, that significant questions have now risen for instance for the future of the multilateral trade system. The United States is one of Finland’s top trading partners. Rules-based free trade between Europe and the United States would be in the interests of both parties. Also the new US government’s arctic policy and climate policy, for example, will be important questions from Finland’s point of view.

‘The changeover in power by free elections is one of the cornerstones of democracy and it must be respected,’ Sipilä notes.