Finland’s silence regarding Narendra Modi’s election victory seems strange compared to other Nordic countries, which have already sent their congratulations.
Mikko Leppänen,
Jani Parkkari
The leaders of numerous countries have congratulated the Prime Minister of India in recent days Narendra Modi victory in the parliamentary elections.
Among the congratulators are, for example, the United States, the EU, Great Britain, Germany, France, Estonia and all the Nordic countries except Finland.
Finnish leaders have so far not congratulated Modi.
Modi has sent personal thanks to the congratulators on the messaging service X. Here are a few examples:
– Thank you for the warm congratulations, my friend Emmanuel MacronModi replied to the French President.
– Thank you Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Norway has been a key partner in the Nordic countries.
– I deeply appreciate the greetings you sent, my friend Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.
Why is Finland’s operation different from the other Nordic countries?
On Thursday, we asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister’s Office and the President of the Republic by Alexander Stubb from the staff, why the Prime Minister of India has not been congratulated.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs replied that the Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (Coll.) congratulates as soon as the new Indian Foreign Minister is appointed. So it seems that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs washed its hands of the matter. Modi’s swearing-in is scheduled to take place on Sunday.
For comparison, let’s mention that on June 4, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent congratulations to the winner of the Mexican presidential election from its X account To Claudia Scheinbaum.
Stubb’s staff did not respond to ‘s inquiry.
On Thursday, Stubb posted on his personal X account congratulations to Denmark, Greece, Panama, Pakistan and Somalia, who have been elected as temporary members of the UN Security Council for the period 2025-2026.
It was reported from the Cabinet Office that the Prime Minister From Petteri Orpo (collective) is sending an official letter of congratulations to Modi. VNK said that the matter is to be communicated in the X service in this context.
By Friday morning, the congratulatory message had not been published from Orpo’s personal account, nor from the accounts of the Government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nor from the accounts of the president.
On June 5, the State Council’s communications department reported in X that Prime Minister Orpo has a fever.
From the outside, it seems that Orpo’s illness has paralyzed the official machinery to the extent that no one has received a congratulatory message sent to India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The slowness of the congratulations seems strange, because Finland has been trying to deepen cooperation with India.