BACKGROUND PRESS CALL
BY SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIALS
ON THE VISIT OF PRESIDENT SAULI NIINISTÖ
OF THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND
Via Teleconference
11:02 A.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you very much, ma’am. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I just want to thank everyone for being here today. Upfront, this is a background briefing with attribution to a senior administration official. And this briefing is for -- to mark the -- it’s a background briefing for the official visit of President Sauli Niinistö of the Republic of Finland.
The ground rules are, again: background, attribution to a senior administration official. We’ll embargo the contents of this call until after the call is complete. And we are going to cap the interview time to 20 minutes.
With that, I will hand it over to [senior administration official] at the National Security Council.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Thank you. So as my colleague talked about, we’ve got the Finnish President coming to the White House tomorrow for a working visit. The President will welcome President Sauli Niinistö to the White House to celebrate the establishment of U.S.-Finnish diplomatic relations in May of 1919.
The President will sadly have to convey our condolences to the people of Finland for today’s attack in Kuopio -- that is K-U-O-P-I-O -- Kuopio -- and offer our assistance.
Over the course of our 100-year-old partnership, ties between our people, our economies, our militaries, and our scientific and academic communities have only grown stronger.
Every year, some 200,000 Finns visit the United States and some 230,000 Americans travel to Finland. Bilateral trade is on track to reach $10 billion this year. Over $1 billion in Finnish foreign direct investment flows into the United States every year, supporting over 23,000 jobs and boosting U.S. exports.
While not a member of NATO, Finland is one of our, and NATO’s, strongest security partners, investing in and developing the needed defense capabilities and maintaining a strong military to address today’s security challenges. Finland’s leadership in promoting defense and resilience to hybrid warfare is exemplary.
As two Arctic nations, we both care deeply about the High North and want to maintain it as region of low tension. At the same time, the President is concerned about Russia’s large military buildup in the Arctic and China’s growing ambition and presence.
As Secretary Pompeo said in May, China’s claim to -- and I quote -- “near-Arctic” status is ludicrous and, I quote, “entitles it to exactly nothing.” We are partnering with our Arctic friends on governance, economic development, and livelihood improvements for this region to preempt China’s debt-trap diplomacy. The President firmly believes that Arctic governance should be reserved for Arctic nations, particularly through the Arctic Council.
Finland is home to Nokia, which has quickly developed 5G technology that is at least on par with that of Huawei and ZTE, and presents one of the viable alternatives for those countries that cherish privacy of their citizens' data, of the integrity of their networks, the security of their critical infrastructure, and knowing that they’re doing business -- they’re not doing business with companies such as Huawei and ZTE that are involved in the modern-day concentration camps of over 3 million Muslims.
The President will discuss with President Niinistö how we can work together to further improve Western 5G alternatives to the Chinese Communist Party’s surveillance tools, which they masquerade around Europe as, quote, “smart cities.”
The President will also raise the importance of free, fair, and reciprocal trade and the prospect of a comprehensive U.S.-EU trade deal with the Finnish President, since Finland currently holds the rotating EU Council Presidency.
Pushing back against unfair trade practices, especially by nonmarket economies, is a key focus for the President and for Finland, as is protecting our technology, our intellectual property rights, and our companies’ reciprocal market access.
Lastly, the President is glad that the Finnish government has agreed to return the human remains and funeral artifacts that were brought to Finland from the United States' Mesa Verde region in the late 1800s.
I’m happy to field any questions.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay, thank you. Moderator, you can go ahead. Thank you.
Q Hi, this is Dmitry Kirsanov with TASS. Thank you for doing the call. I just wanted to clarify something. As far I understand, you're saying that President Trump is concerned with the Russian military activity in the Arctic, right?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That is correct.
Q And what exactly is the reason for this concern?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think it's pretty clear that the Arctic should be an area for commerce and not for Russian militarization, as Russia has done elsewhere.
All right, next question, please.
OPERATOR: At this time, there are no further questions in the queue.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay. Great. Thank you very much for your time.
END 11:09 A.M. EDT
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