One of the youngest global leaders, Finland's PM sends happy birthday message to PM Narendra Modi; lauds Indian diaspora  

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin has sent her wishes to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday and lauded the Indian Diaspora which she said is "vibrant and growing" in her country.

In the letter, Marin said, "heartfelt congratulations to you and my best wishes for your good health and wellbeing". Adding, "There is much potential to deepen even further the bilateral relations between India and Finland". 

There are 11,775 persons of Indian origin, 5159 NRIs & 6616 PIOs in Finland. Many Indians work in Finnish high-tech and IT companies like Nokia.

Both countries last year celebrated 70 years of diplomatic ties, with a letter saying, "our nations are staunch supporters of a rules-based international order.

At 34 years and born in November 1985, Sanna is the 2nd youngest serving state leader. She comes after Sebastian Kurz, the Chancellor of Austria with the age difference between the 2 being 10 months. Kurz was born in August of 1986.

The letter by Finland's PM mentioned the ongoing COVID crisis. She said," We are facing challenging times...The pandemic has clearly shown that national measures are not enough. We need international cooperation now more than ever". 

She recalled the recent 15th EU India virtual summit that took place on 15th July. She said, "We have the opportunity now to turn the good spirits and broad array of deliverables from it into action". 

Explaining, "to this end, Finland supports concrete cooperation between India and EU in many sectors, such as sustainable development.”