Thank you for the past seven years

When, seven years ago, I joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs staff at Merikasarmi as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs, this organisation was not totally unknown to me. My family background had already provided me with experience from Foreign Service, during my parliamentary career I had always been a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and I had also become acquainted with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from the perspective of a historian. During the past seven years my impression of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs – which was not exactly bad to start with – has developed in a positive direction only.

I have had the privilege to lead a ministry with a competent, hard-working and loyal staff, as the successful management of the EU Presidency last year clearly proved. This is not my personal impression only, but also the opinion polls conducted among the citizens, and the feedback received from them tell the same story.

Caricatural diplomats no longer exist

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has also known how to transform itself with time. When we a few years ago started touring the provinces in order to present the ministry to the citizens, in few of these events, I referred to my impression that many people may have quite an outdated image of the traditional diplomacy and diplomats. I also jokingly remarked that we can probably partly blame my grandmother Hella Wuolijoki for creating this image, since the character of Attaché Silakka in her play "Puntila and Matti, his Hired Man" may have given quite a biased picture of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs to many theatregoers. If there indeed has been a civil servant meeting the description of Attaché Silakka sometime in the past, for many years now, people like that have not walked the corridors of the ministry.

Sometimes the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has also been regarded as a highly politicised ministry. I have seen very few signs of that, if any. If the civil servants have had a certain political view – after all, the possibility to join a political party is one of the basic democratic rights – I have not been interested in that, and in most cases not even aware of that. The only matter that has interested me has been the competence and loyalty of our own people, and I have not been disappointed in either of these respects.

Ministry become more transparent

Over these past years, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has become a more transparent institution in every respect than what it is historically known for. Foreign policy is not an occult science; even there the basic rule is transparency. Another feature not suited for handling of foreign policy is an inward-looking operation culture, which is something we are moving away from by means of increasing bilateral mobility between our personnel and other authorities, the industrial and business sector and non-governmental organisations.

Our task is to serve all Finnish citizens in an open manner, within the limits of the resources allocated to us. There is always something that can be improved, and we must try to learn from our experiences. Considering the ministry's tasks and resources, we managed to handle, in its own way the most painful challenge of my term as minister, i.e. the tsunami, at least in a satisfactory manner. However, we cannot do much about the fact that sometimes the expectations on the ministry may exceed our service resources.

Now that my work in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs comes to an end, I want to express my sincere thanks to all Ministry for Foreign Affairs employees for the work well done, and to all the Finns who, in one way or another, have contributed to the activities of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs thus making a valuable contribution to the promotion of security and welfare of Finland and the Finns, and secure and fair international community.

Over these years, I have established many new friendships and acquaintanceships that I hope will continue now that I transfer to other duties.

Erkki Tuomioja