Translation

SPEECH BY MR. MARTTI AHTISAARI, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND AT A BANQUET FOR MR. LENNART MERI, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA;

Helsinki, May 16, 1995

It gives me and all Finns exceptionally great pleasure and honour to welcome you, Mr. President and Mrs. Meri, most heartily to Finland on your state visit. My wife and I have warm memories of our visit to Estonia a year ago.

Your state visit to this country is truly historic, and the focus of great expectations and emotions on both sides of the Gulf of Finland. You, Mr. President, are very familiar with our country; indeed, I have no hesitation in saying that you are one of the great experts on Finland and her history.

For decades, you have been visiting your writer friends in this country and later came here as foreign minister, took up residence as ambassador and are now here as the President of Estonia. You have established numerous links and performed important official tasks in our country, which we know to be very close and dear to you.

Now, for the first time in nearly six decades, a President of Estonia is once again paying a state visit to Finland.

Some time ago, we discovered in our archives a letter sent by your predecessor President Päts to Finland's then political leadership. The message was dated 30.7.1940, just before your President was arrested and imprisoned with fateful consequences. In this message, President Päts outlines his political testament, in which the most central point is an emphasis on closeness between the Finnish and Estonian states after the end of the world war.

President Päts' wish is coming true as a result of the integration of our continent. I am convinced that both Finland and Estonia will eventually be together within the European Union. We shall do our best to ensure that that day dawns as soon as possible.

Estonia's road to freedom and independence has, however, been a long one. We Finns know that the guiding star in your work as a writer, explorer and wielder of social influence has been the restoration of Estonian independence and, since that came to pass four years ago, determined strengthening of Estonia's international position.

When Estonia regained independence, your country faced enormous challenges. During your term as President, Estonia has taken big steps forward in every sphere of life. Estonia is becoming a real success story. We Finns are only delighted for your.

We Finns feel increasingly strongly that we can be involved in your nation's great transformation. The interaction of citizens that existed between our countries during the Cold War made notable contribution to creating a foundation for the return of freedom to Estonia. At the same time, our public broadcasting channels provided our citizens with a significant shared experience.

Estonia's history is one of the most tragic in our continent. You, Mr. President, have personally been through those most difficult of years. You have experienced deprivation of freedom and intellectual oppression. You rose above those trying experiences to lead your country at a moment when history was being made in Europe.

We Finns can esteem your statesman's work, the fruits of which have brought benefits not only to your own citizens, but also more broadly in the whole of Europe.

Meriting special esteem is your work last summer, when an agreement concerning the withdrawal of foreign forces from your country was reached. That was possible because both yourself, Mr. President, and President Yeltsin of Russia demonstrated a rare ability to look at the future without the ballast of the past.

The cornerstone of European stability is the principle that none of the states in the region will use force or threaten to use it against others. Finland regards this central principle of the OSCE as a threshold question in the birth of a new Europe.

Now is the time to create a collective security system for Europe. All solutions must aspire to our binding each other to working for peace and strengthening our common security. In such a Europe, small countries will no longer have enemies and the resources of great powers will be spent on building up economic and social well-being. Now we have a view of the kind of Europe of which President Päts had a vision.

Finland and Estonia, as neighbouring countries and ethnic kin, have always had a special relationship. But in recent years this special relationship has acquired a completely new content and importance. Relations between our countries have never been as close and diverse as now. Our countries are engaged in solid cooperation in every sector of the lives of our societies, not to mention the numerous ties between our countries on the level of friendship and civic organisations. Of particular importance are our economic links, which have been growing rapidly.

Tourist travel across the Gulf of Finland has grown explosively. Talks between our countries with a view to abolishing the visa requirement have been going well and we hope that this could be implemented next year. Contacts between our countries would then be further facilitated.

Finland and Estonia are entering an era of opportunities. Eino Leino wrote these words in his beautiful poem "Song of the Finnish Heartland", published in Ajatar in 1920:

"There were some who thought: 'Thus do the peoples of both east and west unite on the road of struggle, all bearing to the new millennium of humankind the fruits of labour and effort, getting to know each other, even on the road of struggle, of oppression; certainly all roads will lead in the end to peace, fraternity of peoples and a union of peoples.'"

I am certain that those thinkers whom Leino had in mind would wish to be with us now to bear witness to the idealistic realism of their cogitations.

I raise my glass to Estonia, the happiness and success of the country and its people, to fraternity between Finland and Estonia and to the personal happiness and success of yourselves, Mr. President and Mrs. Meri.