Finland borne all costs of Putin-Trump summit

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Tuesday said the Finnish government is bearing all the costs of the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump held in Helsinki on Monday, reported the national broadcaster Yle quoting the news agency STT.

Sipilä, however, remained tight-lipped about the total actual costs spent for the summit, although he claimed the event was a Public Relations for Finland at a cheaper cost.

The prime minister also did not want to give an estimated total cost to STT, but reiterated that the event will uphold the image of Finland.

With both US and Russia having brought massive delegations and the world media in town accompanied by engineers and technicians, Helsinki’s hospitality and restaurant industry is assumed to have benefited greatly, Helsinki City official Tommi Laitio told Yle.

Juha Sipilä said the presence of 1,500 foreign journalists in Helsinki was an affordable way to export Finland’s image abroad. That said, the Finlandia Hall, which served as the international media press centre, was strategically turned into an attractive window on Finland, the report added.

The 2006 Asian-European ASEM meeting staged in Helsinki is the closest budgetary comparison to the Putin-Trump summit where 38 heads of state attended and the cost was EUR 11.8 million.

But that was over a decade ago. Last month, when Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met mano-a-mano in Singapore, the BBC reported that the damage to the city state was some 12.5 million euros, said the Yle report.

News agency Xinhua adds: The cost of the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin covered by the Finnish authorities amounted to 10 million euros, Prime Minister Juha Sipilä said on Tuesday.

The two heads of state held a lengthy bilateral talk and a joint press conference in Helsinki on Monday. Sipila told the news service Uutissumalainen that the spending was “worth it”.

The cost was met initially by the respective ministries and the presidential office, but a supplementary budget will be submitted to parliament, if necessary.

The foreign ministry spent up to one and a half million. Head of press services Vesa Hakkinen told Uutissuomalainen that the free food offered to journalists at the media centre cost a “six-digit figure”.

The quality and abundance of the food at Finlandia Hall buffets amazed many journalists. Comparing the hospitality of hosts, an international defence writer told Xinhua that he “had to queue up to get coffee and bread” at the NATO summit last week.

A Finnish language newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, noted in its editorial that “the memory of the quality care given to journalists may linger longer in the minds of the writers than the substance of the summit.” Alcohol was even served to journalists free of charge during Sunday night when the final of FIFA World Cup 2018 was shown on the screens in the media centre.

The bulk of the 10 million euros is the price of the security services. In Finnish contracts, overtime is costly and changes in the fixed working schedules lead to hefty penalties the employers have to pay.

However, the visitors paid their own cost when booking hotels and renting equipment or services. With the announcement of the summit, room rates initially skyrocketed but came down later. Those who booked fast to secure accommodation paid more than late bookers, the local media said.