Interview with Finnish Ambassador to Thailand and Cambodia Kristiina Kuvaja-Xanthopoulos
For this week's interview, Senior Communications Officer Stew Post sat down with the Finnish Ambassador to Thailand and Cambodia Kristiina Kuvaja-Xanthopoulos. On one of her first official visits to Cambodia – and after a meeting with EuroCham – the pair discussed recent developments in geopolitics, promising areas for Finnish/Cambodian collaboration, and what the ambassador considers Finland's greatest resource.
Stew: Could you start by telling us what drew you to the foreign service, what your time as serving as an ambassador of Finland has been like, and how you ended up as the Ambassador to Thailand and Cambodia? Is this your first visit to Cambodia?
Kristiina: I started in the Foreign Ministry in 1999. I have always been interested in international affairs, and I think that it was very important for me to serve my country. I'm rather proud what Finland stands for: Democracy, human rights, good governance, equality. These are the things that I wanted to work for, and I felt that working for my government would be the right way to do it.
This is my second term as ambassador. I was ambassador of Finland to Bulgaria, and I came from Bulgaria to Thailand.
If I can just give a short reflection. As you very well know, many things have changed recently. When I was ambassador in Bulgaria, Russia started its illegal war in Ukraine. Since then, the security architecture in Europe has changed and after a very careful, people-driven process Finland together with Sweden decided to apply for NATO membership. To be in an EU and NATO country as a Finnish ambassador at that time was extremely interesting. You really felt that you are part of history in the making.
It is, of course, an honour to represent your country at this level and I would say that the experiences so far have been extremely fulfilling and satisfying.
Stew: Thailand is a long way from Europe. Was it a dramatic change coming to Southeast Asia from Europe?
Kristiina: Yes, well, Thailand and Cambodia are not 100% new to me. I have been in the region. I was posted as a young diplomat in the Philippines, and before that I also worked as a young researcher for a while in Thailand.
But there has been, of course, a lot to learn. This region has changed so much since when I was here last, that what I knew is actually old school. I mean, so many things are different. And of course, when you are coming out of Europe, you're coming out of the European Union, so the world looks different.
I think that one of the most interesting parts of my term since September has been learning – with all this turmoil that we are experiencing in the world – what it looks from the Southeast Asia perspective.
It has been extremely interesting having dialogue with different stakeholders, either here in Cambodia or in Thailand, and learning how they perceive the recent events and how they perceive their own role and future in it.
I've really enjoyed these discussions and have absolutely learned a lot.
Stew: Is this your first visit to Cambodia?
Kristiina: As an ambassador, basically yes. I presented my Letters of Credence to the King of Cambodia last month and now this is my first visit as a Finnish ambassador, so I have been meeting Cambodian authorities at the highest level, with the Prime Minister and then some line ministries. Then of course colleagues, ambassadors of different countries, civil society representatives, for example at EuroCham, as well as private sector players.
Stew: Was there any specific purpose or objective to this trip?
Kristiina: First and foremost, courtesy calls to present myself as a new ambassador and then to go through and take stock of Finland and Cambodia's existing bilateral relations and explore what opportunities are there. Really, just getting up to speed so that I can perform my duties as a Finnish ambassador as well as possible.
However, I also want to mention to you: I was referring to the Russian war in Ukraine. I wanted to thank, as a member of the European Union, the way Cambodia has been voting in the United Nations to condemn Russia’s illegal war. This is something that I wanted to make sure that, here in Phnom Penh, our appreciation for Cambodia choosing to be on the right side of history is expressed. That was a specific issue.
Stew: Finland is known as a leader in quality education and you recently hosted Thailand's Senate Committee on Education, Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation for dinner at the Ambassador's residence to discuss best practices in education ahead of the committee’s visit to Finland. What is the value of these types of visits?
Kristiina: Education is a sector that we have been investing in for decades. We truly believe that people are our best asset, our best resource for development. We've been doing this for a long time and there's a lot of global interest vis-a-vis the Finnish education sector.
In Thailand, we have an MOU on education. We have agreed that this is one of the sectors that we would have enhanced dialogue on, and we have a working group between our two countries that looks at specific sectors within education that we would like to focus on. I think that this prompted the Senate Education Committee's interest vis-a-vis Finland.
The Committee contacted us to go to Finland and look into certain elements of the Finnish education sector. Issues with which we have a lot in common: People need to learn new skills and this whole idea of lifelong learning is an issue that all of us need to take seriously.
How do we make sure that the skills that we have gained keep up with the changes in the world around us?
So, lifelong learning is a definitely a goal that we share and I think it's an interesting topic for dialogue between our two countries. I think that vocational training is also something that Thailand is interested in, and we have many universities of applied sciences in Finland who are interested in collaborating with Thailand.
Stew: TVET is something that the Cambodian government is also focusing on and has been investing in recently. Do you think that there is potential for cooperation between Finland and Cambodia on education at some point?
Kristiina: There is already a running collaboration project, a national twinning project which held its inauguration in Siem Reap. It's looking at the TVET institutions and how they collaborate with the private sector because, at the end of the day, this connection has to be there. What the people learn has to be relevant to the companies.
The Finnish University of Applied Sciences is providing know-how through this twinning project. This is, I think, very important and we would like it to continue materialise into something more if there is continued interest from the Cambodian side.
For us, education is an export item.
Stew: Beyond education, what are some other sectors that you think Finland could explore in Cambodia? What types of Finnish businesses could find their market here?
Kristiina: I think that there are two topics where Finland has a lot to offer. One is digitalisation. Finland is one of the leading countries in the world in this regard and there's interest here about how different services can be digitalised for them to be more effective, providing easier services to citizens or to companies. So, we would definitely have opportunities there.
Another big sector I want to mention is the circular economy. We've been talking quite a lot here about waste management, recycling and my message has been that Finland is the first country to have a circular economy strategy and a roadmap. We believe that the base of our future economy is circular and we have a lot of solutions in the private sector to enable the circularity of products.
Of course, digitalisation is part of all that. In the waste management sector specifically, in terms of how we collect, segregate waste, and how we bring the materials back into circulation. There are a lot of opportunities there.
Stew: In Cambodia, with the garment industry and agriculture being drivers of the economy, how does circularity fit into the equation, particularly in terms of increasing importance of due diligence requirements in supply chains?
Kristiina: I think that there are a few topics that can be raised here. One is garment waste. How can we reuse it and not just burn it for energy? Use it for something else. Then there's the chemicals that are used in the textile industry and how we treat the runoff of textile chemicals. These are two topics that we would definitely look at and I think there's an opportunity to apply Finnish know-how
Another issue of circularity for us is biomass. There's a lot of biomass that comes from agriculture in the region and now the question is, what kinds of different ways can you use it? Should that be used as an energy source? Or would you like to do something else with that? Because there's actually a lot of solutions that you could apply to your agricultural waste, anything from making garments up to recycling it into different kinds of materials.
In Thailand, we have a kind of rotating expo with 30 companies that goes from different provinces to present solutions and shows people how they can better use agricultural waste. It's introducing different kinds of Finnish innovations to take this waste which is usually just burned.
In Bangkok the pollution was very bad and we would very much like to see some of these ideas picked up. I know that they are companies who would be very keen to do some kind of collaborative research here on these topics.
Stew: With your visit coming to a close, were there any standout moments for you? Do you have any plans for a return visit, and what do you think you'll focus on for your relationship with Cambodia in the future?
Kristiina: Of course, when you have the opportunity to meet the prime minister of a country – for any ambassador, any diplomat – it is always a privilege because high-level politicians are not necessarily easily available because of their schedules and obligations.
I feel the highlight was that the Prime Minister prioritised meeting with the Finnish ambassador. I think that was an honour and then I think that it was also a highlight to note that, even if we have differences between our two countries, there are also similarities that we can build upon.
I hope that that through this kind of collaboration we are able to convey to Cambodia the factors for success in Finland and that Cambodia would be open to this kind of input and the possibility of integrating them into their development philosophy.
As I have said, Finland puts people at the forefront. We believe that the more educated, critical, open-minded, and emancipated citizens we have, the more successful Finland has become. That's obviously something that we would like to share through our continued dialogue and through practical ways of collaboration.
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