Erkki Tuomioja Biography
Erkki Tuomioja (Erkki Sakari Tuomioja) was born on 1 July 1946. He is a Finnish politician and a member of the Finnish Parliament. From 2000 to 2007 and 2011 to 2015, he served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was President of the Nordic Council in 2008. Tuomioja is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, although his political views are thought to be more to the left than the party line. He is also a member of ATTAC. In the past, Tuomioja has dated the former Finnish president Tarja Halonen.
Tuomioja comes from a family of politicians. His father Sakari Tuomioja was a prominent liberal Finnish politician and diplomat, and the challenger of Urho Kekkonen for the conservatives and liberals in the 1956 presidential elections. His maternal grandmother was Hella Wuolijoki, the Estonian born writer and socialist activist.
Tuomioja holds the degrees of Master of Social Sciences (1971) and Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration (1974) from the Helsinki School of Economics, as well as Licentiate in Social Sciences (1980) and Doctor in Social Sciences (1996) from the University of Helsinki. In addition to Finnish, Tuomioja speaks Swedish, English, French, German and Estonian.
Tuomioja has been a member of the Finnish Parliament 1970–1979 and 1991–present. He held the position of Minister of Trade and Industry in Lipponen’s 2nd government, and became the Minister of Foreign Affairs after Tarja Halonen was elected the President of Finland. Tuomioja is the longest serving Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
Tuomioja, like several other Finnish socialist politicians of today, took part in the illegal occupation of the Old Student House (Vanha ylioppilastalo) in Helsinki on 25 November 1968. He was member of the anti-war group Committee of 100 of Finland and took part in the so-called Erik Schüller case, in which a group of students made public incitement against obligatory conscription. Despite his anti-war stance, Tuomioja did carry out his own mandatory military service and is a reservist staff sergeant.
Tuomioja is the author of several books. His A Delicate Shade of Pink about his grandmother Hella Wuolijoki and her sister Salme Murrik won the Non-Fiction Finlandia Prize in 2006. The book was originally written in English and translated to Finnish as Häivähdys punaista. Tuomioja was behind the initiative to establish Historians without Borders in Finland as an NGO. He has acted as Chairman of the Board of HWB Finland since the founding meeting in the summer of 2015. Tuomioja is a declared atheist.
Erkki Tuomioja Private Life
Erkki Tuomioja’s spouse has been a journalist since 1978, Marja-Helena Rajala, Bachelor of Economics. The couple lives on Mechelininkatu in Töölö , Helsinki and in summer on Tuusula Rantatie . They have no children. The interviewee has been hinted to have been in relationship with Tarja Halonen in the mid-1970s.
Tuomioja, a sports enthusiast, had to leave the basketball for a wrist injury. In the race he has won silver medals and bronze medals for the Olympic Games in a 3,000-meter hurdle race with a record high of 10.52.6. He has been in the marathon for 2 hours and 59 minutes. Erkki Tuomioja has represented Helsinki Jyry since 1968 in athletics.
Tuomioja has been told to be an atheist . The Väinö Voipio Prize was awarded to Tuomioja in 2008 by the Association of Free Speculators . According to the award criteria, Tuomioja promoted secularism in questioning theology at the University and raising reflection on the role of religion in society by publicly exposing atheism. Tuomioja has also been told to feel as a Foreign Minister when he is in bad conscience when reassuring the fever caused by Muhammad cartoon jumbo. In 2017, Tuomioja appeared on Tiisa’s music video, Finland being a police state .
Erkki Tuomioja Helena Rajala
Erkki Tuomioja’s spouse has been a journalist since 1978, Marja-Helena Rajala, Bachelor of Economics. The couple lives on Mechelininkatu in Töölö , Helsinki and in summer on Tuusula Rantatie . They have no children. The interviewee has been hinted to have been in relationship with Tarja Halonen in the mid-1970s.
Erkki Tuomioja Blogi
07/04/2018
Trump and Putin in Helsinki
The news of the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin for two weeks in Helsinki has been taken up here with confused moments. Ten years ago, all the people in Finland would have been proud of the fact that our country is allowed to host a meeting of Major League Leaders. The need for distancing is the consequence of the unresponsiveness of both presidents over the international legal order and the rules of multilateral cooperation that raises great concern and anger. It is therefore important that we in Finland do not hesitate to make a direct statement of what we are thinking of such violations and that we are required to respect all international law and treaties.
Criticism is therefore in place, but it must not be an obstacle to wanting to contribute to the success of the meeting. It is still important and useful to all that the leaders have the ability and the ability to work in a dialogue. This is already needed to prevent the lack of a link leading to conflicts that fuel the misunderstandings. However, we look forward to concrete actions to end the armed conflicts in which the great powers in one way or another are involved and whose end is able to influence them.
This applies, for example. Syria, Ukraine and the Middle East. Both of the Korean Peninsula have an interest in securing nuclear weapons in the Peninsula. This should also apply to Iran, where the withdrawal of the United States from Iran’s nuclear non-proliferation treaty threatens to scrap everything that the six countries have been working together to build.
It is also important that disarmament efforts not only be limited to safeguarding the nuclear power station of the present nuclear powers. The United States and Russia can work bilaterally to make a great deal of threat to the development of a race gear and the development of new destructive weapon systems.
There is therefore more to offer to the agenda of the highscores than it is possible to solve a relatively quickly in an improvised meeting. However, I can hope that the Presidents could agree that their countries will return with sincere confidence to continue the difficult negotiations on disarmament and arms control that have been interrupted.
The direct fears of meeting are based on the suspicion that leaders would seek consensus at the expense of third parties. Although this may attract both leaders, fortunately, today’s world is no longer as bipartisan as the world of cold war, where two superpowers still had the opportunity to settle things over the other ends.
From Finland’s point of view, there is hardly any risk associated with a meeting. As host country we can say, as Merkel 2015 in the refugee crisis, that “wir schaffen das”. Our survival also helps to keep in mind that the guests will not leave on time. After attending 100,000 other people in the Pride pass in Helsinki, I hope that even the Presidents Trump and Putin, who unite the contempt of the pride represented by the values of equality and respect for human rights, would be infected with this 2000s Helsinki spirit.
Erkki Tuomioja Political lines
Erkki Tuomioja
Erkki Tuomioja and Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn .
Tuomioja was a key Finnish activist of the 1960s. His specialty was international and educational matters. Tuomioja has been a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee almost all her time and has written several books and articles on economic integration and critical thinking about globalization . In the 1970s, he opposed the then EEC free trade agreement , but supported Finland’s accession to the European Union before the referendum in 1994.
As Foreign Minister, Tuomioja has actively participated in the handling of globalization issues and has been the Finnish leader of the Helsinki Process of Globalization Management. In the SDP, Tuomioja has actively participated in the party’s policy and policy debate. He has defended the Nordic wider welfare state and criticized the liberal economic policy aimed at cutting public services . In the party, he has been held to the left. In 2008, Tuomioja participated in the debate on the renewal of the party and traditions by presenting the possibility of abandoning the lustrous obscure tradition.
Tuomioja also said he was opposed to the combination of the Left Alliance and the SDP, referring to the Leftist Stalinist wing, who does not want the SDP and which the SDP does not want the party. In spring 2009, MP Tuomioja criticized Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in extraordinary terms . Tuomioja wrote in her blog that Berlusconi is not a shame for Italy, but for Europe as a whole.
Middle East
At the European Union Foreign Affairs Council, where Tuomioja has represented Finland in 2000-2007 and 2011, the Middle East has been on the agenda of almost every meeting. Tuomioja has frequently visited the region and supported peace efforts. Finland’s EU Presidency took place during the Lebanese war , when Tuomioja was active, mainly with the support of France, in order to get a Hezbollah and Israel armed . Finland’s crisis management assets were increased with a surprising situation, and as in France, Finland contributed to the stabilization of southern Lebanon , chiefly as construction adherents , as Israel organized Dan Haluz led by strategic bombing against bridges, crossroads, communications and waterworks.
The issue that affected Tuomioja’s relations with Israel was the ban on Israel’s gas detectors in 2002. Israel was a country in warfare, according to Finland’s foreign policy, to which military equipment and dual-use items should not be exported. As a result, thousands of spam were sent to Tuomioja’s e-mail, which Tuomioja believed to have been from Israeli Foreign Ministries. Trade relations with Israel were otherwise normal.
United States
Suomen Kuvalehti and Helsingin Sanomat have criticized President Tarja Halonen and Erkki Tuomioja as Foreign Minister for Finland’s relations with the United States have cooled down. In 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was angered at Tuomioja when he, as Foreign Minister of the European Union, had received answers to CIA jail and torture of terrorist suspects. The meeting is said to have ended with “moderately intense” word change.
Erkki Tuomioja Written production
Tuomioja received the 2006 Tieto-Finlandia Award for Hella Wuolijoki, a work originally written in English, A Red Delight ( A Delicate Shade of Pink ). The work is a double biography of Hella Wuolijo and her sister Salme Pekka . Tuomioja’s earlier production includes biographies of KH Wiik , Sakari Tuomioja and Pekka Kuusesta and Finnish foreign policy book Suomen ulkopolitiikka Anno 2004 . In 2010, Jaan Tõnisson’s biography of Jaan Tõnisson and Estonian independence appeared in Tuomioja. Tuomioja is also a diligent web publisher, and his home page has attracted many public discussions.
Erkki Tuomioja Recognitions
- Tieto-Finlandia, 2006.
- Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences, University of Turku , 2013.
- Honorary Professor of International Humanitarian Law, University of Palestine , 2013.
- The great ancients of the Federal Republic of Germany with star and shoulder strap, 2017.