Finland calls for joint Nordic membership in G-20, more say in international affairs

Finland calls for Nordic membership in G-20

HELSINKI — The five Nordic countries should have more say in international affairs, including a joint seat in the Group of 20, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said Thursday.

Vanhanen said the Nordic region — Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland — deserves representation in the group of major economies “because our joint economic weight is quite significant on an international scale.”

Sweden, Finland and Denmark are represented at G-20 summits by the European Union, while Iceland and Norway are not EU members. Vanhanen said the Nordic nations would gain more influence by speaking with a common voice at international forums.

“We should be very careful that when … new international groups are formed, we are not left out,” Vanhanen told a meeting of Finnish and Swedish government ministers. “We have mentioned, among others, the G-20 as an example of such structures in which the Nordic countries also should have a position.”

The biggest EU nations — Germany, Britain, Italy and France — have individual seats in the group and Spain successfully lobbied to attend the G-20 economic crisis summit in Washington in November.

“It is evident that in the future we will not be able to exert sufficient influence at established and new international forums if we act on our own,” Vanhanen said.

His comments came at meeting of 34 Finnish and Swedish ministers, one of the main events marking the 200-year anniversary of their separation. Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809 after more than 600 years of Swedish rule. Finland became part of Russia’s Czarist Empire as an autonomous Grand Duchy, until independence in 1917.