ISLAMABAD, July 30: Finlands embassy in Islamabad will close formally on Tuesday, forced by the high cost of land inside the Diplomatic Enclave and of security outside it.

Finnish foreign ministry had signaled the closure in a statement in January this year because to stay in Pakistan it will have to invest into a new chancery.

“One aspect is the security situation … It is not an acute situation but because we have to cut costs in our global embassy network, we decided not to invest in a new building,” Undersecretary of State Peter Stenlund announced through the statement.

A diplomat of the European Union, of which Finland is a member, told Dawn that the cost of security for the Finnish Embassy in Islamabad was high because it operated in a residential area.

In August last year, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, concerned over the security risk the diplomatic missions in residential areas posed,  directed the Capital Development Authority and the Interior ministry to see they moved to the security of Diplomatic Enclave.

Apparently, the Finnish authorities found the CDA’s price of land of around $500 per square yard in the Enclave too high and preferred to close down the embassy.

In March this year, the Finnish embassy in Islamabad stopped processing visa applications. It advised applicants to approach other Finnish embassies in the region where they had legal entry, like the Embassy of Finland in New Delhi.

The diplomat, however, said Finland was negotiating with another Schengen country to reach an agreement on representation in visa matters in Pakistan.

The diplomat added that the mission had also officially conveyed to Pakistans foreign ministry but the ministry had not shown any concern relating to closure of the mission in Pakistan.

He said the Finnish ambassador had already left a month before the closure, besides five members of the mission along with their families.

A federal government official said the Foreign Office had not made any effort to negotiate with the CDA to resolve the high price issue of land in Diplomatic Enclave.

“Pakistan Foreign Ministry officials had never approached the Finland Ambassador Osmo Lipponen with a solution to the high cost issue,” added the official.

“If the land price and security issues remain, it is feared that other missions located in residential areas may also shut their embassies,” observed the official. Many of the foreign missions, occupying 70 buildings in the city, want to move to the enclave and have applied for land in Phase II there.

The embassies and foreign missions functioning in residential areas belong to Algeria, Norway, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Hungary, Denmark, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Belgium, Sudan, Oman, Libya, Brazil, Romania, Afghanistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Holland, Korea, Portugal and Portugal (Chancery), British Council, Greece, Republic of Northern Cyprus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Finland and Latvia, UNDP and UN.

When the chairman CDA was approached for his comments, he remarked: “It’s a policy matter and there are fixed prices for different clients. For commercial use the price is different whereas for diplomatic mission the cost is fixed at $500 per sq. yd while amenity plots for educational institutions are also offered in Diplomatic Enclave but at a different rate.”

The chairman said: “It’s not a matter of concern for him, if a mission closes its offices, since some other institutions have to tackle such matters.”

He, however, said the CDA was never approached by any of the federal government officials in this regard.

Despite multiple attempts the spokesman for the Forigen Office Moazzam A Khan was not available for comments.