Finland–United States relations

Finnish President Urho Kekkonen with U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961

President Ronald Reagan with Finnish President Mauno Koivisto in The Rose Garden 1983

Finnish President Tarja Halonen with Obama in 2009

U.S. President Joe Biden and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö in the Oval Office, 2022

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto in Reykjavik, 2021

Postage stamp celebrating the 350th anniversary of Finnish settlements in America

Diplomatic relations between the governments of Finland and the United States were established in 1920 at a legation level.[1]

During the Second World War, although the Finnish government co-operated with the Axis Powers, relations were maintained. The U.S. government resisted Soviet pressures to declare war on Finland, but on June 30, 1944, it agreed to sever diplomatic relations with the Finnish government. After Finland had withdrawn from the war and acted against German troops in early 1945, the U.S. government reopened its legation in Helsinki on March 1, 1945. On August 20, 1945, negotiations were started between the two governments on re-establishing diplomatic relations, which was done on August 31.[2]

Relations between the two countries were raised to embassy level on September 10, 1954.

Relations between the United States and Finland are warm. Some 270,000 U.S. citizens visit Finland annually, and about 6,000 U.S. citizens are residents there. The U.S. has an educational exchange program in Finland that is comparatively large for a Western European country of Finland's size. It is financed in part from a trust fund established in 1976 from Finland's final repayment of a U.S. loan made in the aftermath of World War I.

Finland is bordered on the east by Russia and, as one of the former Soviet Union's neighbors, has been of particular interest and importance to the U.S. both during the Cold War and in its aftermath. Before the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, longstanding U.S. policy was to support Finnish neutrality and to maintain and reinforce Finland's historic, cultural, and economic ties with the West. The U.S. has welcomed Finland's increased participation since 1991 in Western economic and political structures.

In 2003, Anneli Jäätteenmäki of the Centre Party won the elections after she had accused her rival, Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, of allying neutral Finland with the United States in the Iraq War during a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and thus associated Finland with what many Finns considered an illegal war of aggression. Lipponen denied the claims and declared, "We support the UN and the UN Secretary-General". Jäätteenmäki resigned as prime minister after 63 days in office amid accusations that she had lied about the leak of the documents about the meeting between Bush and Lipponen. That series of events was considered scandalous and it is named Iraq leak, or Iraqgate.[3]

Economic and trade relations between Finland and the United States are active and were bolstered by the F-18 Hornet purchase. U.S.–Finland trade totals almost $5 billion annually. The U.S. receives about 7% of Finland's exports – mainly pulp and paper, ships, machinery, electronics, instruments, and refined petroleum products[4] – and provides about 7% of its imports – principally computers, semiconductors, aircraft, machinery. U.S. President Joe Biden approved the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden in August 2022.[5] Principal U.S. officials include

• Ambassador – Doug Hickey[6]
• Deputy Chief of Mission – Susan Elbow
• Public Affairs Counselor – Jeff Reneau
• Political-Economic Section Chief – Rodney Hunter
• Management Affairs – Steven Rider
• Commercial Section – Nicholas Kuchova
• Defense Attache – Colonel Scott Shugato
• Consular Officer – Susan Carl
• Regional Security Officer – Rick Gregory
• Agricultural Officer – Steve Huete (resident in The Hague)

• 
  Embassy of the United States in Helsinki
• 
  Embassy of Finland in Washington, D.C.

The Embassy of the United States is located in Helsinki, Finland. The Embassy of Finland is located in Washington, D.C.

According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 48% of Finnish people approve of U.S. leadership, with 34% disapproving and 18% uncertain.[7]

The League of Finnish-American Societies (Finnish: Suomi-Amerikka Yhdistysten Liitto) is a non-profit organization promoting cultural exchange between countries which operates in Finland. It has around 30 chapters in Finland, e.g. those in Helsinki, Turku, Oulu and Kuopio.[8]

• Foreign relations of Finland
• Foreign relations of the United States
• Accession of Finland to NATO
• Finnish Americans
• US–EU relations
• Finland–NATO relations
• European Union–NATO relations

 This article incorporates public domain material from U.S. Bilateral Relations Fact Sheets. United States Department of State.

• Fields, Marek. "Reinforcing Finland's Attachment to the West: British and American Propaganda and Cultural Diplomacy in Finland, 1944-1962." (2015). Abstract
• Golubev, Alexey, and Irina Takala. The Search for a Socialist El Dorado: Finnish Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the United States and Canada in the 1930s (MSU Press, 2014)
• Hasan, Ali Ghafil. "US-Finland Economic Relations 1917-1945." Eurasian Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 2 (2021): 28-34. online

• Jakobson, Max. The diplomacy of the winter war: an account of the Russo-Finnish War, 1939-1940 (Harvard Univ Press, 1961.)
• Rislakki, Jukka, "`Without Mercy': U.S. Strategic Intelligence and Finland in the Cold War," Journal of Military History, (Jan. 2015) 79#1 pp: 127–49.
• Schwartz, Andrew J. America and the Russo-Finnish War (Public Affairs Press, 1960)
• Wargelin Brown, K. Marianne. "Finnish Americans." Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America, edited by Thomas Riggs, (3rd ed., vol. 2, Gale, 2014), pp. 137–151. online

• History of Finland - U.S. relations

Media related to Relations of Finland and the United States at Wikimedia Commons