Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at a dinner in honour of the President of the Russian federation Vladimir Putin and Mrs. Putina on 3.9.2001

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Yours is the second state visit to Finland by a President of Russia. It is also your first time since becoming President to make an official visit to this country, which you know well from the past.

Finland has changed since your first visit here in the early 1990s. Russia, too, has experienced big changes in the past ten years.

Russia's endeavour to draw closer to the European Union and integrate her economy with the economies of Europe and the world is justified. It is likewise important that Russia continues, as a European country, to maintain her commitment to the European community of values. Embracing and strengthening democracy, respect for human rights and the rule of law are a process that takes a long time. Mr. President, you are resolutely conducting reforms in Russia and we want to make our contribution to supporting these efforts.

Relations between Finland and Russia have been developing excellently for the past decade. Our cooperation in the political, economic and cultural fields is diverse and successful. Your visit and the programme for it demonstrate well that our mutual relations are today a natural interaction between states that respect each other. During our discussions yesterday and today we have dealt with several categories of matters that are important from the perspective of our relations. We have every prospect of further developing our mutually-beneficial cooperation.

The border between Finland and Russia is also the frontier between the European Union and Russia. Both of us see it as Russia's most stable and economically-dynamic external frontier. More people and goods are crossing that border than ever in the past.

EU enlargement will bring Russia and the Union closer together and increase interaction in every sector and on every level. With enlargement, Russia will gain four new EU members and the whole of north-west Russia will become a neighbouring region of the EU. That will underline the status of St. Petersburg - soon to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its foundation - as Russia's historical window on Europe. At the same time, the Baltic Sea region will become more emphatically a sphere of cooperation.

Finland strongly supports EU enlargement. It will have a stability-enhancing effect on the whole of Europe and increase opportunities for cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. I am convinced that Estonia's, Latvia's and Lithuania's membership of the European Union will have a positive influence on relations between them and Russia.

The outlook for the future of European security is good. Integration is promoting security. Both common security interests and the solutions that individual countries arrive at are compatible in a way that strengthens security in our continent.


The fact that our countries are neighbours underscores the need for cooperation in many sectors. This applies to the environment in particular. The state of the Gulf of Finland and more broadly the entire Baltic are our shared concern. Of the several tangible programmes currently in progress to improve the state of our environment, the most important is a large wastewater-treatment plant to the south-west of St. Petersburg. Another important initiative concerns the creation by Finland, Russia and Estonia of a sea traffic control system for the Gulf of Finland.

With regard to energy cooperation, we Finns are convinced that building a new gas pipeline through the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea to serve the European market will usher in a new era in harnessing the vast energy resources of Russia's north.

Viewed historically, Finland's economic success was built on exploitation of forests. That could also be the case in the northern and central parts of Russia. As we all know, Russia has the world's biggest accessible forest resources. Finland is interested in cooperation to exploit those resources on a sustainable basis. We can also offer our expertise and experience to develop sustainable forestry in Russia. The decision to arrange the first Finno-Russian forestry summit in Moscow next winter is an excellent idea.

In addition to all-round development of our bilateral relations, we should also know each other in an international context. Finland is taking an active part in developing relations between the EU and Russia. The European Union's Northern Dimension policy is thus far probably our most visible contribution in the development of EU policy on Russia. With European peace and stability in mind, cooperation with Russia represents both a great opportunity and a central challenge for the enlarging Union.

Our people are meeting each other as well. Travel between our countries is flourishing. Thousands of Finns visit Russia each day and the importance of Russian visitors to the Finnish tourism industry has grown. Exchanges of students between our countries are likewise active and the only limiting factor is a shortage of places to study, not any lack of willingness on the part of students.

The young people of today have good opportunities to familiarise themselves with the everyday reality of also more remote countries and their peoples. However, it is important that in the future we know our neighbours as well. Indeed, I am pleased that SITRA, the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development is launching a programme in which young Russians who are the influential persons of the future can familiarise themselves with Finland and Finnish society.

My visit to Moscow in June last year has left me with warm memories. I am delighted that you and your wife are now our guests in Finland. Our discussions have been open, honest and conducted in a warm spirit. I appreciate this greatly, and also your work to develop relations between our countries. I hope we shall be able to continue our discussions in the near future.

I propose a toast to the good health of you and your wife as well as to Russia's flourishing and the success of the Russian people.