From Geneva to Oslo
Ambassador Pekka Huhtaniemi, Head of the Permanent Representation of Finland to Geneva since 1998, will move to lead the Embassy of Finland in Oslo as from 1 September 2003.
He will be accompanied by his spouse, Ms Liisa Huhtaniemi, and their dog Emma, known by many Genevans. The transfer from Geneva to Oslo means a major change in the life of Ambassador and Ms Huhtaniemi.
Rotation from one duty station to another is an integral part of the life of Diplomatic Service officials and their families. Our next destination will be Oslo, where our term in the leadership of the Finnish Embassy will start at the beginning of September.
We are happy about the assignment to Oslo. The past five years in Geneva have been very rewarding to us in every respect. In Oslo our tasks and challenges will be very different. It is a great honour for every Finnish Foreign Service official to serve the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in one of our Nordic neighbours. Even though the relations between Finland and Norway are exemplary, the embassy staff will have plenty of work ahead of them.
The transfer to Oslo is our first assignment to a clearly bilateral duty station. Having served for over 30 years in an almost exclusively multilateral working environment and EU circles, we consider the future years in Oslo a very welcome change both professionally and from the point of view of daily life. Geneva is an excellent duty station and place of residence, but Oslo has also a number of good characteristics. It is a particularly friendly place for the Finns who are not afraid of the long and dark winter and who appreciate the worth of the light summer and the straightforward Nordic way of life.
Geneva is a hectic junction of international multilateral activities. As a Member State of the EU, Finland is here playing a key role in a number of processes that are carried out with a view to solving and predicting the innumerable problems of our increasingly global world. Trade, development, human rights, humanitarian activities, issues related to the environment and health, and many other questions that are significant from the point of view of the world economy and world peace are under discussion here all the time. In Geneva, Finland is renowned as an active country, which contributes to ongoing projects in a constructive manner.
During the years that we have served in Geneva, we have also sought to make Finland and Finnish culture known to the Genevans and to our colleagues from different parts of the world residing in the city. One of the fascinating features of the multilateral life in Geneva is that nearly all the corners of the world are represented here. We have also found that Geneva provides excellent opportunities for making Finland known to persons who would possibly never otherwise come into any contact with our country. The Finnish colony in Geneva has always been prepared to support all our cultural projects. Many projects would have come to nothing without their support.
In Oslo, things are not as multidimensional. The Embassy’s principal duty is to take care of and promote the bilateral relations between Finland and Norway. We have visited Norway several times and are familiar with the different parts of the country. We also have some Norwegian acquaintances made previously. However, it is clear that we do not know what exactly are the things that call for our attention the most and where the Embassy can bring about real added value to the relations between Finland and Norway until after we have assumed our functions and settled down in the city.
The facts that Norway is not a member state of the EU and Finland does not belong to NATO are of special political interest. This setting gives much room for bilateral diplomacy. On the economic front, there is certainly need for further promotion of trade and investments to both directions. Some of the rich cultural services of Finland should be brought to the attention of the Norwegians. It is important to enhance the standard of knowledge of the Finns and the Norwegians about each other. The thousands of Finns who are working in Norway constitute an important contact group for the Finnish Embassy in Oslo. We also keep in mind the fact that sports is “greater than life” to both the Finns and the Norwegians and try to keep ourselves informed about issues taking place in that domain of life.
We want to thank all our partners of cooperation for the many memorable events during our assignment in Geneva and wish every success to our successors, Vesa and Ulla Himanen, in this unique city.
Pekka and Liisa Huhtaniemi