‘Whatever Happens in the Sauna Stays in the Sauna’: Diplomacy, Conducted in the Nude

“When you are half-naked or even sometimes completely naked, it allows for deeper discussion,” said Mikko Hautala, the ambassador of Finland to the United States. “You talk in a way that doesn’t happen when you are sitting around a table with a tie on or at some formal thing.”

Diplomacy takes shape in different ways: formal meetings in the Oval Office and state dinners in the White House’s grand East Room; casual receptions at embassies; and one-on-one meetings over martinis in the lobbies of five-star hotels.

And then there is the way the Finnish government prefers to conduct business. They like for their networking and meetings to happen in the sauna and, for the most part, in the nude.

“We have a golden rule that whatever happens in the sauna stays in the sauna,” Ambassador Hautala said. “We try to make sure there is full trust and confidence.”

In Finland, the sauna is part of everyday life, the ambassador explained. “There are 5.5 million people and three million saunas,” he said. “Even a small flat has a sauna.”

The Finns use it multiple times a week in the evenings or mornings before their day begins, in a ritual that involves showering, sitting in extreme heat and cooling off in cold water. That practice, which is traditionally performed without a bathing suit, is repeated multiple times before saunagoers sit down for a healthy meal. It is a social experience.