Finland wants to return Chinese pandas – too expensive

Finland had to rent the pandas Lumi and Pyry to the zoo in Etseri. But now Finland thinks they have become too expensive and wants to return them.

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Pandas have historically been sent back and forth as diplomatic pawns. Returning them can be problematic.

• The panda is a sacred animal in China and it is considered an unfriendly act to return pandas, says Börje Ljunggren, who is a China expert at the Foreign Policy Institute.

But Finland does not believe that it will damage relations, says SVT’s correspondent Liselott Lindström, who is in the capital Helsinki.

• Experts here say that it is not a diplomatic crisis or that it puts Finland in a bad light. This is not a direct political stance.
  
• Source: svt

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