Foreign relations are present between Australia and Finland. Diplomatic relations were established on 31 May 1949. Australia is represented in Finland through its embassy in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, Sweden, and through an honorary consulate in Helsinki. Finland has had an embassy in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
Darwin
Darwin may refer to:
Common meanings
* Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection
* Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
,
Hobart
Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, and
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, and an honorary vice-consulate in
Cairns
Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...
.
Diplomatic relations
Early history, 1917–1949
Early diplomatic representation of Finland in Australia dates back to 1917, when the Grand Duchy of Finlanddeclared its independence from the Russian Empire, with Finnish citizens being represented by Russian diplomats prior to 1917. Although the United Kingdom (representing Australia) would not recognise the new country of Finland until 6 May 1919, John Oscar Boijer, the head of the Finnish Seamen's Mission in Sydney, effectively acted as an unofficial consul. Boijer was replaced in February 1919, when the acting Prime Minister of Australia, William Watt, announced that Australia had recognised businessman Kaarlo Johannes Nauklér as the Consular Agent of Finland based in Sydney.
Nauklér was officially appointed Consul by the Finnish Government on 24 October 1919. His jurisdiction also included New Zealand, New Guinea and Oceania in general. On his appointment, the '' Daily Commercial News and Shipping List'' positively noted: "Finland will find that in Australia, she will acquire friends who will only be too pleased to trade with her, and by sending her representative here she has shown her earnestness." Nauklér was an accomplished athlete winning Australian championships in both javelin and discus throwing in 1919 and 1921 respectively. On 24 October 1919, Naukler was officially appointed as Consul for Finland in Australia, with responsibility for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, which formerly received recognition from King George V on 15 December 1919. However, on 9 May 1921, Naukler unexpectedly died at the age of 31. It was later revealed that he had died by an overdose of
morphia
Morphine is a strong opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin in poppies ('' Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as a pain medication, and is also commonly used recreationally, or to make other illicit opioids. The ...
, taken as a result of marital issues, and his death was pronounced to be suicide. In his memory, the K. J. Naukler Cup was established by the NSW Amateur Athletics Association, presented to the winner of the most overall points in the annual competition.
Following Naucklér's death, another Finnish citizen resident in Australia who had been his deputy since August 1920, Harald Tanner, acted as the consul of Finland, and was later officially appointed consul in June 1921. Tanner also acted as the vice-consul for Estonia and occasionally for
Latvia
Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...
. In 1928, Tanner received official appointment as Honorary Consul for Estonia. Tanner organised annual receptions on Finland's Independence Day held at the Consulate at 4 Bridge Street. Tanner lived at 48 Aubin Street, Neutral Bay, where he displayed a variety of Finnish arts and crafts. On 20 February 1935, Tanner departed Australia, leaving Sydney for Finland on board the SS ''
Nieuw Holland
Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas ...
'', and was replaced as Finnish consul from 1 March by Paavo Simelius. Simelius arrived in Sydney on 17 April 1935 aboard the ''
RMS Maloja
RMS ''Maloja'' was a British ocean liner that saw service from 1923 to 1954.
The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company ordered two sister ships, RMS ''Maloja'' and , from Harland and Wolff Ltd on 29 November 1918. Hull number 588 w ...
''.
With the commencement of the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939, Simelius was involved in raising funds for Finland's defence and humanitarian support for Finnish citizens. By 1941, with the new war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom on behalf of Australia broke off diplomatic relations with Finland, as a co-belligerent with Germany, under pressure from the Soviet Union, who was fighting the Continuation War with Finland. On 30 July 1941, the Australian Minister for External Affairs, Sir Frederick Stewart, notified Consul Simelius that all Finnish diplomatic staff in Australia were considered ''
persona non grata
In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution.
Diplomacy
Under Article 9 of the ...
'' and were to leave the country at the next available opportunity. On his departure, Simelius noted: "I will be sorry to leave, for I have met with extreme kindness and courtesy from everyone in this country, Government officials and private citizens alike. There are between 1,500 and 2,000 Finns in Australia. The great majority of them are farmers, orchardists, sugar-cane growers and miners." At the time, Finnish citizens in Australia were considered to be non-enemy aliens. On 8 December 1941, following the United Kingdom, the Australian Government declared war on Finland, with Finnish citizens now considered to be enemy aliens. The state of war ended without shots being fired with the signing of the Moscow Armistice between Finland, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union on 19 September 1944, and eventually the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty in 1947 of which Australia was a signatory. Australia ratified the peace treaty with Finland on 10 July 1948.
New connections, 1949–1967
On 14 July 1949, the Finnish Government announced that the office in Sydney would be reopened as a higher level
legation
A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, minister. Ambassadors diplomatic rank, out ...
rather than a consulate, with the former consul, Paavo Simelius, appointed as the new
Chargé d'affaires
A ''chargé d'affaires'' (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador ...
to Australia. Simelius arrived in Melbourne aboard the '' SS Orcades'' on 18 July, declaring "it's just like coming home to me". As the Finnish representative in Australia during the Coronation of Elizabeth II, he was awarded the
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal
The Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal (french: link=no, Médaille du couronnement de la Reine Élizabeth II) is a commemorative medal instituted to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953.
Award
This medal was awarded a ...
.
In 1954, the Finnish government moved to establish new offices in the Australian state capitals: Sir Harry Howard as honorary vice-consul in Perth, Sir Hamilton Sleigh as honorary vice-consul in Melbourne, Robert Newenham Irwin as honorary vice-consul in Adelaide, and Maldwyn Douglas Davies as honorary vice-consul in Brisbane. In 1968 Howard was honoured by President Urho Kekkonen with the Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland and Irwin was made a Knight First Class of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. Simelius retired from his position on 31 July 1958, and was replaced as chargé by Toivo Kala, who arrived in Australia on 11 January 1959. Kala served until 1963, when Olavi Wanne took up the position of chargé on 23 April.
Later history, 1967–present
On 1 March 1967, the decision was made to move the Finnish Legation to Canberra, and upgrade it to an embassy to coincide with the Australian appointment of an ambassador to Finland, which was completed on 2 June 1968. When Olavi Wanne returned to Finland early due to ill health, on 1 October 1968 he was succeeded as chargé by his deputy Peter Graf von der Pahlen.
Not long after the Finnish Embassy moved to Canberra, in May 1968 the Australian Minister for External Affairs, Paul Hasluck, announced that the next Australian Ambassador to Sweden would receive non-resident accreditation as Ambassador to Finland to match representatives at the ambassador level. In July 1968, the second resident Ambassador to Sweden, Roy Peachey, was appointed as the first Ambassador to Finland. In November 1968, the Finnish government announced the appointment of Tuure Mentula as the first ambassador of Finland (and later for New Zealand), and he took up office on 4 February 1969. With the Finnish Embassy move to Canberra, in 1971 an honorary consulate was established in Sydney headed by
Charles Benyon Lloyd Jones
Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...
, which was further upgraded to an honorary consulate general in 1973. In 1978 a new Finnish Embassy building on Darwin Avenue, Yarralumla, incorporating a
chancery
Chancery may refer to:
Offices and administration
* Chancery (diplomacy), the principal office that houses a diplomatic mission or an embassy
* Chancery (medieval office), responsible for the production of official documents
* Chancery (Scotlan ...
and ambassador's residence designed by Rommel Moorcroft & Partners, was opened. In 1995, Australia established an Honorary Consulate in Helsinki. On 15 August 1994, Chris Rann was made Honorary Consul for Finland in South Australia and in 2005, he was awarded the honour of Knight First Class of the Order of the Lion of Finland.
In 2002, a new Finnish Embassy chancery building was opened on the corner of Darwin Avenue and Forster Crescent, designed by Finnish architect Vesa Huttunen of Hirvonen-Huttunen, who won the commission in a 1997 competition, and the supervising Australian firm, MGT Architects. Its distinctive modernist style, drawing inspiration from the former Finnish coastal defence ship Ilmarinen, was praised at the time as "a testament to the excellence of Finnish architectural traditions". In 2015, half of this building was converted into the Estonian Embassy, creating a unique dual-embassy arrangement in a single building.
High level visits
*October–November 1990 – Parliamentary delegation to Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark led by Carolyn Jakobsen MP.
*7–19 April 2002 – Parliamentary Delegation to Finland and Germany led by President of the Australian Senate, Margaret Reid.
*13–17 February 2007 –
President of Finland
The president of the Republic of Finland ( fi, Suomen tasavallan presidentti; sv, Republiken Finlands president) is the head of state of Finland. Under the Constitution of Finland, executive power is vested in the Finnish Government and the p ...
Tarja Halonen
Tarja Kaarina Halonen (; born 24 December 1943) is a Finnish politician who served as the 11th president of Finland, and the first woman to hold the position, from 2000 to 2012. She first rose to prominence as a lawyer with the Central Organisa ...
visited Australia.
*April 2010 – Foreign Minister Stephen Smith visited Finland.
*November–December 2013 – Alexander Stubb visited New Zealand and Australia as Minister for Foreign Trade.
*2015 – Australian Environment Minister
Greg Hunt
Gregory Andrew Hunt (born 18 November 1965) is a former Australian politician who was the Minister for Health between January 2017 and May 2022. He was a Liberal Party member of the House of Representatives between November 2001 and 2022, repr ...
visited Finland to discuss the state of the Great Barrier Reef.
*April–June 2016 –
Governor-General of Australia
The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Sir Peter Cosgrove
General Sir Peter John Cosgrove, (born 28 July 1947) is a retired senior Australian Army officer who served as the 26th governor-general of Australia, in office from 2014 to 2019.
A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Cosgrove f ...
undertook a state visit to Finland.
*29 February to 5 March 2016 – Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini and Minister for Defense Jussi Niinistö visited Australia with a delegation of nine companies and organisations to promote trade.
*2 December 2022 – Finnish Prime Minister
Sanna Marin
Sanna Mirella Marin (; born 16 November 1985) is a Finnish politician who has been serving as the Prime Minister of Finland since 2019. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP), she has been a Member of Parliament since 2015.
...
visited Sydney, the first visit of a Finnish prime minister to Australia, and met Australian Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parli ...
.
Trade
Australia is an important trading partner for Finland, being Finland's seventh largest exporting country outside Europe. Total two-way merchandise trade between Australia and Finland was worth $1.2 billion in 2018. Australian exports to Finland were $88 million, comprising mainly coal and alcoholic beverages, while Finland's exports to Australia totalled $1.1 billion and included civil engineering equipment and parts, passenger and goods vehicles, and paper and paperboard. In 2018, Australia's total investment in Finland was worth $3.8 billion, with Finland investing $863 million in Australia. A number of Finnish multinationals including
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, established in 1865. Nokia's main headquarters are in Espoo, Finlan ...
,
Stora Enso
Stora Enso Oyj (from sv, Stora and fi, Enso ) is a manufacturer of pulp, paper and other forest products, headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. The majority of sales takes place in Europe, but there are also significant operations in Asia and ...
Outokumpu
Outokumpu Oyj is a group of international companies headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, employing 10,600 employees in more than 30 countries. Outokumpu is the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest producer in the ...
,
Wärtsilä
Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technol ...
and
Konecranes
Konecranes Oyj (KCI Konecranes prior to 16 March 2007) is a Finland, Finnish company, headquartered in Hyvinkää, which specialises in the manufacture and service of crane (machine), cranes and lifting equipment as well as the service of machine ...
, have a presence in Australia.
Treaties
17
Australia–Finland bilateral treaties
The following is a list of international bilateral treaties between Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian c ...
covering various areas such as
extradition
Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisd ...
,
social security
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specificall ...
and taxation have been agreed between the two countries.
Migration
Between 1921 and 1939, almost 2,000 Finns arrived to Australia. From the 1930s small Finnish communities formed in the mining town of
Mount Isa
Mount Isa ( ) is a city in the Gulf Country region of Queensland, Australia. It came into existence because of the vast mineral deposits found in the area. Mount Isa Mines (MIM) is one of the most productive single mines in world history, b ...
and sugar industry towns of Tully and Ingham in north-western Queensland. Under the post-war General Assisted Passage Scheme, around 6,000 Finns moved to Australia, a level of migration that continued into the 1960s and 1970s.
Australia has an estimated 30,000 inhabitants with Finnish roots. The majority of Finns live near Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. According to the 2016 census, the number of people born in Finland living in Australia was 7,711. The number of people who spoke Finnish was 59,577. As of 2022, there are approximately 25 Australian citizens permanently living in Finland.
See also
*
Foreign relations of Australia
Foreign relations of Australia are influenced by its position as a leading trading nation and as a significant donor of humanitarian aid. Australia's foreign policy is guided by a commitment to multilateralism and regionalism, as well as to ...
*
Foreign relations of Finland
The foreign relations of Finland are the responsibility of the president of Finland, who leads foreign policy in cooperation with the government. Implicitly the government is responsible for internal policy and decision making in the European ...
*
Australia–European Union relations
Relations between the Commonwealth of Australia and the European Union (EU) are founded on a Partnership Framework, first agreed in 2008. It covers not just economic relations, but broader political issues and cooperation.Finnish Australians
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...