SPEECH AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB LUNCHEON

by Mr Martti Ahtisaari,

President of the Republic of Finland,

7 November 1994

Ladies and gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure to speak to this distinguished audience. Over the years, your Club has been kind enough to offer the Finnish Presidents the opportunity to discuss topics important for Finland and the United States. I am happy to continue this excellent tradition. Finland seldom appears in the front page news. Fair enough, because front pages are reserved for crises and other dramatic developments anyway.

But I do not exaggerate a bit if I say that the Finnish Government and people have made a historic decision. Three weeks ago the Finns, in a referendum, voted in favor of joining the European Union. This was the first time, when Finland's future international course was determined in a referendum. At this very moment, the Finnish Parliament is debating the ratification of the Treaty on Finland's Accession to the European Union. I am convinced that the Parliament will come to the same conclusion as the people which it represents.

Those of you who may have listened to my predecessors here, will agree that we have come a long way. Paraphrasing an American sportsman-philosopher: "The future ain't what it used to be". Yesterday's tools are not sufficient for solving tomorrow's problems.

Today, I would like to share with you views on the future of Europe and Finland's place in it.

In our history, all major upheavals in Europe have had an impact on our security. This was particularly true during and immediately after the Second World War. We learned to be careful about our security policy but bold about opening gates to contacts across the borders of Europe.

The cold war ended, Finland faces another defining moment in her history. We will promote her well-being and security in a new setting, that of integration, both economic and political.

Abrupt as the change may seem to us today, there were visionaries such as the American George F. Kennan, who already in the 1940'srecognized the inherent instability of totalitarian regimes. His vision became true nearly 50 years later. Communism collapsed and the bipolar system yielded. Now, the task for governments is to manage this change, to give it direction and to promote stability in a process marred by instablities.

New tools and a new shared view are needed to deal with today's security challenges in Europe.

Finland is a firm advocate of cooperative security. From our perspective security - military, economic, social and environmental - can only be addressed in cooperation with others. This is a world of interdependence.

Europe's challenges are formidable. One is to continue reform and promote stability in the transition countries. Another is ethnic strife and extreme nationalism. Europe needs no new divides. Now that the cold war division has withered away, the international institutions, CSCE, the European Union, NATO and others are adjusting themselves to their new roles. Static concepts do not suffice.

The European Union occupies a unique position in this respect. It is a cooperative arrangement between nation states consisting of a single market which offers economic tools of integration, a Monetary Union which helps nations to adjust their economic and monetary policies toward agreed objectives, and common foreign and security policy. The Union projects security and stability for the whole of Europe. Alone and isolated no state would be able to cope with these new challenges.

For decades, the European Community developed common policies with the view of improving the competitiveness of its members. However, from the beginning, the underlying reason for European economic integration was strategic, to make peace permanent. Jean Monnet, a Frenchman and the founding father of the European economic integration said: "When Western Europe unites and gathers its strength, it will draw in the Eastern Europe. This great "East-West" Europe will be a force for peace in the world." The United States supported his view from the outset.

Today, Monnet's vision has an extraordinary chance to materialize. Yet it requires determined decision making by European nations. In two months' time, Finland will have acceded to the European Union. The agenda offers multiple opportunities. We intend to be an active partner in the implementation of Monnet's vision.

As a member, Finland will bring a Northern dimension to the work of the European Union. We will act on the basis of our values of equality, social justice and democracy as well as respect for the environment and promotion of free trade. These goals are shared by all Scandinavian countries.

An important part of this Northern dimension are the 800 miles of land border that we share with Russia. With Finland in, the European Union and Russia will meet at this border. We intend to utilize this opportunity to attract new initiatives and to get new resources for economic activity across the border. We hope that these opportunities are used in the areas of energy, environment and nuclear safety, for instance. This would provide a good example for Europe-wide cooperation. Between the United States and Russia, similar work is also going on within the Commission chaired by Vice President Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin of Russia.

In the European Union, Finland has a strong interest in strengthening stability in the entire Europe. What could be our contribution?

One is Finland's indigenous and credible defence. It was important for Northern European stability in the past and it still is today. Another is our contribution toward resolution of conflicts. Finland has a notable record in the United Nations' peacekeeping efforts since the 1950's. We are prepared to share our accumulated experience with our old and new partners.

I should add that Finland's existing defence arrangement corresponds to our needs, we do not have a security deficit. We intend to be a contributor, not a consumer of security.

Ladies and gentlemen:

For Finland, perhaps the most striking challenge in the Baltic Sea area is the regained independence of the three Baltic states. They never lost their national identities and their love of freedom. The United States played a crucial role in this process which is part and parcel of stability in Northern Europe.

The Baltic countries are entitled to the same opportunities as other European nations in the process of integration. They should not be excluded from full participation in European institutions.

On a more practical level, Finland continues her support to the reconstruction efforts of the Baltic countries. Our contribution has been biggest in Estonia for understandable reasons of kinship. Therefore, contacts at all levels and in all spheres of life flow free. Among the examples of benefits from these newly freed exchanges are rapidly increasing trade, in three years Finland became Estonia's most important trading partner and millions of people commute between Finland and Estonia. After all, the distance from Helsinki to Tallinn is shorter than from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Helsinki Final Act and the Paris Charter of the Conference in Security and Cooperation in Europe continue to serve us well. They contain the agreed principles, objectives and values of the new Europe. But it is the operational focus of the CSCE on preventive diplomacy and crisis management that gains in importance. We are pleased to note that all participating states are working toward strengthening the Conference.

The United States has played a decisive role in European security since the Second World War. The continued American presence in Europe and involvement in the continent's future remains essential.

The recent initiative of the United States, the program of Partnership for Peace provides a formula for developing new cooperative security relationship. It facilitates efforts to create a collective security system in Europe. The Partnership for Peace is inclusive rather than exclusive. It aims at uniting, not dividing. It offers the participants the possibility to tailor their cooperation according to their security needs.

Finland has joined this new partnership. Finland is not a demandeur of new security but aims to contribute to the security of all. With this objective in mind, Finland also considers observer status in the Western European Union.

Ladies and gentlemen:

During the post-war decades, we learned a few fundamental lessons which in my opinion are valid today. Those are: As a small economy dependent on foreign trade, Finland supports free trade and opposes protectionism; we are advocates of cooperation for global security through appropriate institutions and for regional arrangements serving this broader objective; and we favor closer co-operation and joint efforts by all democratic states, not only in Europe but across the Atlantic and on the global level.

Ladies and gentlemen:

I would like to conclude with an assessment of the Finnish American relationship. It is the same as that of my predecessors. The relations are excellent and are gaining new content. Economic exchanges are increasing, in the political change of Europe we have a number of common interests. In many areas our dialogue has intensified and benefited from the presence of almost one million Finnish Americans who have made their contribution to this great country.

Thank you.