President of the Republic Tarja Halonen held talks with Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov of Russia in Mäntyniemi on 19 April 2006. President Halonen and Prime Minister Fradkov focused mainly on energy cooperation and also discussed energy security. President Halonen drew attention to protecting the Baltic Sea and thanked the Russians particularly for cooperation in building the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant in St Petersburg.
Prime Minister Fradkov said that Russia has great expectations for the Finnish Presidency of the EU. He added that relations between Finland and Russia are good and he hopes that relations between the EU and Russia will develop favourably during the Finnish Presidency.