President Halonen met UN Secretary-General in New York

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday, 17 May. Topics for discussion included the situations in Irak, Middle East, Sudan and Kosovo, UN reform and climate change. Both the President and the Secretary-General expressed their concern at the situation in the Middle East. They also discussed Finland’s possible membership of the UN’s Security Council in 2013-2015. Before meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, President Halonen discussed the situation in Kosovo with Martti Ahtisaari, the UN Envoy for Kosovo. On Friday 18 May, President Halonen spoke at the American Scandinavian Foundation Annual Gala Dinner. According to President Halonen, Finland has longstanding, wide and excellent relations with the United States. “The United States is Finland’s most important trade and investment partner outside Europe. We share a keen interest in new technology and innovations”. There is also lots of interesting potential in other areas for bilateral cooperation, such as health care, education, and the issues involving northern and Arctic areas as well as environmental expertise.

President Halonen and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon met in in New York. Copyright © Office of the President of the Republic of Finland

Economy is an essential part of the transatlantic relationship between the European Union and the United States, the President said. She noted that “the degree of mutual dependency in trade and investment relationship has increased in recent years, interestingly enough, despite the rise of Asia as the recipient of American and European investments”.

President Halonen said that the most important result of the recent United States – European Union Summit is the framework agreement on economic cooperation. “The new framework is a welcome signal to the business community, which for a long time has found the different standards and regulations to be one of the major obstacles to the further development of transatlantic trade”.

Support to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

President Halonen considers combating climate change as a true global challenge. According to her, it will eventually take more than the EU and the US to make a difference. “I would like to repeat my whole-hearted support to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Indonesia in December”, President Halonen said.

At the end of her speech, President Halonen warmly thanked the work of the American-Scandinavian Foundation. “Our joint venture, Scandinavia House, has become what we wanted and expected - an active meeting point offering very rich and varied programme. It is clear to me that the ASF has also influential and positive profile in the social relations between our countries.”

On Thursday 17 May, President Halonen met the President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Richard N. Haass. The main subjects for discussion were future threats. President Haass emphasised that in facing climate change, the United States and the European Union must find each other.

President Halonen returned to Finland on Sunday, 24 May.

Speech by President Halonen at the American-Scandinavian Foundation