Join the new world

In a series the Ministry of Foreign Affairs likes to present foreign nations to the Norwegian public. After having dealt with Saudi Arabia in our first part of the series, it is now time for one of our closest allies - Finland. The flag of Finland, also called siniristilippu, is showing the blue Nordic Cross on a white background, white resembling the snow in winter and blue the many lakes of Finland.


Society
Finland has 680 active users while Norway comes around with 200 active users. The Finnish population hence is 3.5 times bigger than ours. Additionally the Finnish society seems to be primarily made up by Finnish citizen as their entire media uses Finnish as communication language. Rare incidents lead to an English translation of the articles, such as joint Asgard strikes or other important battles.
Landscape close to the Norwegian-Finnish border.

Geography
As Norway, Finland consists of 6 regions, 2 of them offering Fish while the remaining regions offer Aluminum, Iron, Clay and Sand. With Aluminum and Iron Finland obtains - compared to Norway - a twice as high production bonus for weapons while the food production gains less bonuses then the Norwegian production.

Fiscal System
The fiscal system of Finland is a bit different from the Norwegian. The work taxes are set to 3% while the VAT is set to its minimum value of 1%. However, the import taxes are relatively high in Finland. Raw Materials come along with an import tax between 40% and 99%. Food, Weapons Moving Tickets and Houses have a moderate import taxes (12-27😵, which is, however, high compared to the Norwegian standard of 10% or less. The overall tax income of Finland is about ten times that of Norway.
Landscape in Lapland in October

We contacted the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs (TheJuliusCaesar) to learn more about Finland.

TheJuliusCaesar, could you introduce yourself in a few words to the Norwegian citizen?
-Hey there everyone! I'm a Finnish player actively participating in foreign politics. Been MoFA for six terms and in a bunch of other ministries.

Recently we celebrated the third anniversary of our beloved alliance Asgard. How would you rate the impact of Asgard on Fennoscandian politics - both national and international - from today's perspective?
-Asgard has had an enormous effect on our internal and foreign policy. Before forming of the alliance, we were separated in terms of alignments and policies. We waged war on each other, which led to nothing but worsening of situation for both parties. When we joined Asgard, we could finally cooperate and plan our attacks - become a stronger entity. At best we held all of our core regions, plus colonies in Russia (rent), UK and Germany. That is the power of cooperation. However, lately the activity of the alliance HQ has been a bit decreasing.

If you compare the societies of Finland and Norway, what are the big differences, where are we close?
-The biggest difference is the size. Though both countries' societies are shrinking, is Finland's a bit better. Similarities, both of us have battles with PTO-problems during recent years. However, nowadays these problems are gone. Another similarity is that there seems to be the same faces when it comes to leading the country. That's a bit concerning, as same players can't handle all the things continuously.

Most of the Finnish media is written in Finnish which is hard to understand for Norwegians. Could you give us a short introduction into your media? What are the important thing which are being discussed at the moment?
-At the moment our media is full of crap, honestly. Thanks to the new missions, which demand articles and comments, it is really a nuisance to try to spot any meaningful articles from the media. Majority of the meaningful articles are foreign politics reviews, and something regarding the economy.

Finland is known for Sauna, Nokia and constant warfare against Estonia. Recently we saw two Training wars between Finland and your neighbors - signs of an approach in relations?
-I wouldn't call it a warming of relations. Apart from UK which is usually beyond reach, our only possible attacking route and enemy is Estonia. Honestly saying we can't make them our friends, nor we want. Southern Helsinki is a main piece of our foreign policy. Still, of course I have friends in Estonia.

Asgard decided to host Australia which has been expelled from its territory for quite a while now. Such a deal requires close military cooperation - will the deal lead to a common Asgard-Australian Defense policy? What about a potential membership of Australia in Asgard?
-The Australian operation has really enhanced our cooperation and relations with them. At least I am open for any future cooperation with Australians, regarding defense operations or such. I hope they'll be able to liberate Australian core regions and be free again. Australia however won't be joining Asgard. We are not going to accept any new members at least in near future. We aim to keep ourselves regional.

A few weeks ago Plato decided to introduce the housing industry - how did the resource changes affect Finland?
-House industry hasn't really affected our economy in any way. Producing House Raw Materials (HRM) is not profitable, nor is producing houses. Remains to be seen how the Q4-Q7 houses will affect it, if they have an effect at all.
Is there anything you would like to add?
-Nothing really comes to mind. Thanks for these really good questions, was a pleasure answering them. Oh, and sorry about being so late with this.


TheJuliusCaesar I would like to thank you for taking the time and answering the questions on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. May our nations enhance cooperation and may Asgard prevail.


noenting
Directorate of Embassies
Ministry of Foreign Affairs