Below are some lightly edited out takes from a background briefing about Mme. Secretay's trip by a senior State Department official en route to Helsinki.
... I’ll walk you through Finland, Latvia, and St. Petersburg. In some ways, the first two stops on this trip are a continuation of the Nordic stops we did a couple of weeks ago with some of the same themes and issues and purposes, one of which is just to express our great appreciation for the cooperation of a great ally and partner in Finland and Latvia. But some of the other issues like climate, the environment, the Arctic, women’s empowerment, Afghanistan will be issues that the Secretary will be addressing with her counterparts in Finland and Latvia.So there you have it - a little added depth to what this trip is about.
In Finland, she will see President Niinisto, Prime Minister Katainen, and Foreign Minister Tuomioja. And again, I expect they will talk a lot about Russia, the environment, energy, U.S. business opportunities, and once again, women’s empowerment, especially in Finland, where they’ve really taken the lead on the issue of women in government, women in business, and particularly women in Afghanistan consistent with Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and security.
Beyond the official meetings, she’ll visit the Marimekko factory, textile and clothing factory, a company that has a real social responsibility, and do an event on the environment, on the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, again a follow-up to what she did. This is an organization the U.S. and Sweden launched – and Finland will be joining it – on reducing short-lived pollutants. So she’ll do this environment event on the Climate and Clean Air Coalition with some members of the Finnish Government.
... that will be paired with an event on the League of Green Embassies. Our Ambassador to Finland Bruce Oreck has been a leader of an initiative to make our embassies and our residences more environmentally friendly and efficient. He’s made some great progress, a lot of innovative ideas
... Latvia, the next day, where again she’ll see the President Berzins, Prime Minister Dombrovskis, and Foreign Minister Rinkevics. Again, I suspect Afghanistan will be high on the list, Russia energy, and again, U.S. business promotion. After the initial meetings there, she’ll lay a wreath at the Freedom Monument, which is the place that President Clinton spoke, I think in 1994, and she accompanied him then. This trip, by the way, is the first by a Secretary of State to Latvia since 1993.
... it will be Secretary Clinton’s 100th country visited [as Secretary of State], a testament, I think, to the enormous activity that she has put into her job.
... then there’ll also be a dedication – we can come back to the issue of countries visited. There also will be a dedication of Sumner Welles Street, which the Latvians named after acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles, who of course launched the Welles Doctrine on non-recognition of the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union, a proud moment for the United States that the Latvians also very much appreciate. So that will be wrapping up Latvia.
... onto [sic] St. Petersburg, where the Secretary will attend the APEC Women’s and Economy Forum. She’ll speak on at the Forum on Women and Economy, following up on the work she’s done in this context of empowering women, especially their role in economies throughout the APEC region. Remember, she gave a speech in San Francisco with a number of milestones of how to promote women’s role in the economy, and this will be her opportunity to address the progress made since then and other things that need to be done throughout these countries to advance women’s role in economy and society.
She will also, in St. Petersburg, meet with Ms. Matviyenko, who is the former mayor of St. Petersburg and now the head of the Federation Council in Russia, the highest-ranking woman in the Russian Government. So she’ll do a bilat with her. And then she’ll have a bilateral dinner Foreign Minister Lavrov, which I imagine will, as always, cover a very wide range of issues and of course will cover Syria, given the prominence of that issue in our foreign policy and relationship with Russia.
