Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at a dinner in honour of the state visit of the King of Malaysia on 19 September 2005

My husband and I have the pleasure and honour of welcoming Your Majesties, the King and Queen of Malaysia, and your delegation to Finland on this state visit. This is the first time Malaysia’s head of state has been to Finland. Your visit to Finland demonstrates excellent relations between our two countries.

Both our countries are covered by forests and have long coasts. Finns and Malaysians love nature and its richness. Together we are concerned about the environment and consider it our duty to ensure sustainable development.

Malaysia is a multicultural country. Minorities in Finland are fewer in numbers. Both our countries have learned that tolerance and receiving and giving influences are something that enrich culture, and are not a threat. Similarly indigenous people in both countries are a richness we can be proud of. Both countries emphasize the significance of peace, cooperation and multilateralism in international relations.

Malaysia’s economic development has been very strong since the latter part of the 1990’s. We have every reason to believe that the goal of raising Malaysia to the level of the developed industrialized countries by 2020 is realistic. This evaluation is based on the fact that Malaysia, like Finland, has invested in research and development as well as education. As you know, Finland has achieved very good results in these areas. Finland is constantly among the top countries in comparisons of international competitiveness and the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Malaysia’s international position is strong. One indication of this is your country’s chairmanship of both the Non-aligned Movement and the Organization of the Islamic Conference. In December Malaysia will also become the chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is perhaps the most important organization in Asia.

We here in Finland and the European Union are closely following the ASEAN summit and Asian integration. We hope that it will lead to open and developing economic and other relations among Asian countries and also other actors, including the European Union and its members. We look forward to hosting the 6th ASEM summit in September 2006 in Helsinki.

Late last year Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries were devastated by an enormous natural disaster, a tsunami. The December tsunami affected the whole world as approximately 300 000 people lost their lives. It as also the single most severe accident affecting Finland during peace time taking 179 lives. We observed with care here in Finland that, in spite of the destruction on your own coast, Malaysia was the first country to rush assistance to Aceh in Indonesia. Today both our countries are playing an important role in helping the people of this long-suffering province on the road to peace and development.

Relations between our two countries have been strengthened in recent years in the fields of culture, art and education. Finnish and Malaysian universities cooperate extensively nowadays. Finnish artists in different fields have also visited Malaysia. In Finland we have learned and appreciated the meaning of Malaysia’s tourist slogan: “Malaysia, Truly Asia”. More and more Finnish tourists are going to Malaysia to enjoy the excellent holiday possibilities it offers. Also economic cooperation between our countries has developed favourably. The value of trade exceeds 400 million euros and growth figures last year were very good.

We are very glad that Malaysia opened an embassy in Helsinki last year and we believe that this will provide additional possibilities to present Malaysian culture and art in Finland.

The need for cooperation is increasingly underlined in today’s international operating environment. We are glad that Malaysia is one of the friends of the Helsinki Process on Globalization and Democracy.

I hope that this visit will help encourage relations and cooperation in different fields between our countries. In this spirit I would like to propose a toast to the health and well-being of Your Majesty and Her Majesty, as well as the Government and people of Malaysia.