By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN I ARAB NEWS

RIYADH: About 4,500 kilometers away from Saudi Arabia, a small country tucked away in an isolated Arctic corner of Europe with fewer than 5 million people has focused on its cultural achievements and promoting cultural interaction with the Arab world, particularly Saudi Arabia.

That nation is none other than Finland, where a growing interest is now seen among its people to learn more about the Arab culture, learn Arabic and interact with the Arabic-speaking world.

They have already set up a Finnish-Arabic Society, launched a magazine called “Marhaba” to focus on the exchange of Arab and Finish art, recently began a project to translate the famous Finnish epic into Arabic and have lined up several programs of cultural exchange.

They are also talking to the Saudi Commission of Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) and King Saud University (KSU) as well as many other Gulf organizations to undertake joint cultural projects and forge closer ties in the field of art, architecture and museology.

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Finnish Ambassador Jarno Syrjala with Chairman of Finland’s Didrichsen Art Foundation Jarno Peltonen, left, in Riyadh on Wednesday.