FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

Finnish prime minister on Wassenaar

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 16 Dec 1998 06:52:06 +0200 (EET)
From:          Tatu Ylonen <ylo@ssh.fi>
To:            gnu@toad.com
Cc:            cryptography@c2.net
Subject:       Finnish prime minister on Wassenaar
Organization:  SSH Communications Security, Finland

Lipponen on Wassenaar:

"The United States is in a very powerful position"

The agreement made in early December in the secretive Wassenaar organization on export controls of strong encryption technology puts the industry in a difficult position and conflicts with the government's position on encryption politics. In particular people have wondered how the United States got its view through.

Prime minister Paavo Lipponen reminded that "The United States is in a very powerful position" and that in Wassenaar "we must aim for mutual understanding".

"The Wassenaar negotiations are highly secret", Lipponen said. The prime minister did not comment on what was the subject of trading in the Wassenaar negotiations. Despite giving in Finland is not, according to Lipponen, changing its liberal principles in encryption politics. "Finland still aims for openness and free markets also in this area."

The Nokia director responsible for trade politics, Veli Sundb_ck, elaborated on Nokia's position towards Wassenaar. According to Sundb_ck, Nokia stands with the industry's position that strong encryption should be permitted and its export should not be restricted.

Export control causes Nokia additional work and extra expenses. Sundb_ck said that applying for export permissions is a very "difficult thing", but Nokia has expertise in this area. Zurück