Office of the President of the Republic
Press release 11/2021
21 June 2021
President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö had a good and thorough telephone conversation with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, on Monday, 21 June 2021.
The Presidents started with the bilateral relationship between Finland and China, and discussed opportunities to further improve trade and investments as well as cooperation on education and research between the two countries. The conversation also focused on circular economy, clean technologies and other joint measures to tackle climate change. President Niinistö’s hope for China to join the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action raised interest.
President Niinistö presented his thinking on the Helsinki Spirit, which originated at the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975, and the possibility to reinvigorate it on a global level by the year 2025. He raised the human responsibilities of the present day which are intrinsically connected to the Helsinki Spirit, including the safeguarding of peace, tackling common threats such as climate change and pandemics, and the fulfillment of human rights. In this context both Presidents stressed the importance of genuine dialogue. The Presidents also discussed the relationship between the European Union and China in this same spirit.