Fri, 03 Jul, 2015 01:22:26 AM FTimes- STT-Xinhua Report, July 3  President Sauli Niinistö. File Photo Lehtikuva. President Sauli Niinistö on Thursday said the recent developments over the rejection of entry to Russian State Duma chair Sergei Naryshkin will not cause any deep wounds on the bilateral relations between Finland and Russia.
Niinistö said Finland had no other option, since some of the EU countries opposed to the attendance of persons imposed with EU travel ban to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly meeting.
“We tried to move forward in accordance with the rules of procedure that is to inform other member states. Negative responses came from there, which have to be taken into account according to the rules,” Niinistö said.
According to news agency STT, at least the Baltic States had objected the attendance of those on the EU travel ban list.
Niinistö said the situation was complicated by the tight schedule, since there was only three weeks to resolve the issue.
The president termed the situation regrettable.
Responding to the criticism made by Russian politicians about the issue, Niinistö said Russia’s comments were expected following the decline to grant persons on the EU travel ban list a temporary waiver, although he said some of comments were a bit too sharp.
On Wednesday, the Finnish authorities declined to temporarily exempt Sergei Naryshkin from an EU travel ban to participate in a meeting of the parliamentary group of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) scheduled to be held in Helsinki from July 5 to 9.
The 15-member Russian delegation was invited to attend the OSCE meeting. Sergei Naryshkin and five other delegates are subject to a travel ban by the EU after the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis.
The rejection means that the Russian officials will not be allowed to enter Finland to participate in the meeting.
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