Your Majesties,
Your Royal Highnesses,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First, I would like to thank Your Majesties for the invitation to pay a state visit to Norway that I received at the very beginning of my presidency. My wife and I would also like thank you for the very warm welcome, and for the interesting programme you have prepared for us.
It is great to be here tonight in this magnificent setting and share it with friends with whom we have a deep and enduring bond. Finland and Norway have mutual respect, trust and a shared commitment to promoting peace and prosperity between our countries, here in the North and elsewhere in the world.
In 2012, I had the honour to accompany President Niinistö on his visit to Norway in my capacity as Minister for Foreign Trade. On the flight from Helsinki to Oslo, I remember asking the President in a loud voice: what kind of a hotel is this “Royal Palace”? The standard turned out to be so high that I decided that I wanted to come back one day. And here we are.
Norway is an absolutely awesome country. It is no coincidence that my wife Suzanne and I made a memorable 25th anniversary trip to the Lofoten in the summer last year. The islands are unbelievably beautiful. I am also grateful to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, an excellent tour guide, for his valuable travel tips.
Norway is also a great sporting nation. Today, you are among the best in the world in almost any sport. When Norway won eight medals in the Paris Olympics – four golds, one silver and three bronzes – while Finland, for the first time, got none. It is not always easy to be the happiest nation in the world!
But just a word of warning. On Sunday, I exchanged messages with cross-country skier Iivo Niskanen. He told me that at next year’s world championships in Trondheim, there will be only silver and bronze on offer for Norwegians in the ten kilometres classic race.
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Finland and Norway share a border stretching more than 700 kilometres. This is about 200 kilometres longer than the border Finland shares with Sweden. This is a fact we easily forget.
This border unites us more than it separates us. ”Nabolag har ingen grenser”. The Forest Finns, who moved to southern Norway in the 17th century, and the Kven people who moved to northern Norway in the 19th century, brought with them some of our Finnish customs and culture. It is great to see that today they have the status of a national minority. Less people have moved from Norway to Finland.
However, towards the end of the 19th century, it was Norwegians who set up a steam sawmill industry in Kotka, marking the beginning of the sawmill industry in Finland. One of the Norwegians who also moved to Finland back then was the great-great-grandfather of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, the late President Martti Ahtisaari.
Following slightly different paths, we have both developed into internationally esteemed Nordic welfare states that respect democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We have built societies based on trust, where the sense of solidarity is a key value. We are consistently in the top 5 in all world rankings.
Today, Norway is an amazingly wealthy nation that uses its resources wisely, providing a lot of crisis assistance and development aid, but also saving part of its wealth for the younger and future generations. One challenge we are both facing is the ageing of the population. That is why modern healthcare and care for the elderly are among our most important development objectives. We are also both experiencing a shortage of skilled workforce.
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The external challenges we are facing are massive. We are in a period of historic transition in world politics. As power relations change, the prevailing world order, which emerged after the Second World War, is being challenged. Over the last two years, we have witnessed Russia’s disregard for the rules of the international community in its war of aggression against Ukraine.
When Russia attacked Ukraine, Finland woke up to the fact that we must ensure our country’s security in the best possible way also in the new operating environment. Last year, in addition to our EU membership, we secured our place in the Western community of values by joining NATO.
We will never forget the unwavering support Norway gave to our NATO membership, just as we will never forget the help given by Norwegian volunteers during the Winter War. Norway was one of the first Allies to ratify our membership and undertook to provide us security guarantees even before the membership was finalised.
Our NATO membership is today a key part of our defence, and our integration with NATO structures is advancing. In this respect, we have a lot to learn from Norway, which has been a member for 75 years. Norway saw early on that it would be sensible to have all the Nordic countries under the same NATO Command in Norfolk. Now, this is happening. Norway’s experience was also of great value to us when we negotiated the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States.
Functioning infrastructure is the key prerequisite for the effective implementation of common deterrence and defence. We appreciate Norway’s commitment to strengthening the transport corridors from the west to the east, via Norwegian ports. As I have said before, Finland is like an island. It cannot solely rely on the connections provided by the Baltic Sea. That is why, on our side of the border, we are also developing the railway and road networks, strengthening our bridges in the north of Finland.
It is essential that we take a comprehensive view on safety. Security of supply must be ensured and the vital functions of society must be safeguarded in all circumstances. When Finland takes over the presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers next year, our key priority will be crisis preparedness and resilience.
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Norway is our dear neighbour, so it is not surprising that we have very close relations. At the same time, I believe we could do even more. The possibilities are almost endless. As they say, optimism is a duty. The future is open.
So, let us raise a toast to our hosts, Their Majesties King Harald and Queen Sonja, Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit – and to the Finnish-Norwegian partnership!
