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.

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