Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at a promotion and commissioning ceremony for cadets on 4.6.2003

Cadets! I congratulate you on your success in graduating as officers. I hereby promote you to the rank of First Lieutenant and appoint you to positions in the Defence Forces and Frontier Guard.

Young Officers! There has always been a linkage between Finland’s security and the security of Europe as a whole. By taking care of our own security we promote the security of our entire continent, and the more we can contribute to the security of Europe, the better from our own point of view. Also in this respect, membership of the European Union has ushered in a whole new era for Finland.

With globalisation, both Finland’s security and that of Europe depend on events elsewhere in the world. Threats to security change, evolve and move from location to location rapidly and unpredictably. Often, making only military provision for them is not enough. It is not possible to shield ourselves from them on our own; international cooperation is essential.

Big changes have taken place on the European security scene. Threat images today are completely different from what they were as recently as just over ten years ago. The organisations that centrally affect European security have enlarged or are in the process of enlarging to cover nearly all of the continent. Integration within the European Union has continued to deepen, NATO has adapted its basic tasks to changing conditions and both organisations have built a developing relationship with Russia.

Development is still continuing. We must get used to the fact that constant change has become a permanent state. We Finns must ourselves actively strive to influence the course of development. We must know history and be able to look sufficiently far into the future so that the decisions we make in any given situation accord with the interests of our nation.

This does not mean that we should make haste with new solutions concerning security policy. There is neither a need nor a reason for that. But we must make sure that alternatives continue to be available to us and that we ourselves can make decisions that affect our status. This calls for alertness and above all political will and expertise.

European security rests on two central pillars: deepening European integration and the transatlantic security community NATO. Both are necessary and complement each other. Neither must work against the other.

Finland is not a NATO member. However, we see NATO’s role as being central for the security of Europe and the role of the United States in it as important. Increasing agreement will certainly serve the interests of both parties.

Finland has staunchly supported the European Union’s stabilising effect in Europe. We have championed both the Union’s enlargement and increasing its capacity for decision making. We support strengthening the Union as an actor in international politics. Developing our military capability to perform a variety of crisis-management tasks is also associated with this.

Developing the Union’s capacity – both civilian and military – is in a key position. We are prepared to support initiatives with this aim. Our own contribution to developing the Union’s crisis-management capacity stands up well to comparison with other countries. In Finland’s view, the establishment of a defence material authority makes sense. We support solutions that lead to concrete progress and which strengthen the character of the Union as a community of solidarity and security.

Finland’s approach to developing the European Union’s defence dimension is a pragmatic one. The work of building a genuine crisis-management capability is still incomplete. It must be continued and new challenges taken account of. The so-called Berlin+ summit between the EU and NATO provides a framework intended to ensure that the jobs that the EU and NATO do complement each other.

We Finns must keep an open mind over the long term in the development of the European defence dimension. This development should be harmonised with European security’s other supporting pillar, NATO.

We actively exert influence to ensure that future solutions will genuinely meet Europe’s future security challenges and give Finland the possibility to make her own security-related solutions.

Finland’s defence has been developed against a long-term time frame and on the basis of reports on security and defence policy. The reports, the next of which will be published next year, have proved an effective way of guiding the development of our security policy and our defence.

The core task of the Finnish Defence Forces is to defend this country and its citizens. General conscription and a territorial defence covering the whole of the country are the means that best suit the discharge of this task.

Finland participates actively in international crisis management. Playing a part in performing international tasks also helps the development of Finland’s defence. Participation in international tasks has become part of Finnish officers’ everyday work. The demands that these challenging tasks make are constantly changing and evolving. A Finnish company is just beginning its work on the border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

We are also following the development of the situation in Iraq as well as that of the international situation associated with it and examining in what way we can best contribute to promoting the peaceful development of that country.

I hope you will take a positive and open-minded attitude to opportunities to serve your native country also in international crisis-management tasks, increasingly often together with civilian actors.

You are now being given a great responsibility as trainers of conscripts and reservists in our rapidly-developing Defence Forces. You are examples for your subordinates. Constant attention will be focused on your actions, attitudes, knowledge, skill and will. Training is interaction; you must be able to listen to subordinates, give conscript leaders scope to work and bear responsibility, be supportive of trainees and demand the same of your superiors. Training annual cohorts of over 50,000 conscripts and reservists is a central matter in maintaining and strengthening our national defence capability. I am sure you will perform this task excellently. I wish you the best of success in your demanding careers as officers.

Commandant, directors and teachers of the National Defence College! The training that Finnish officers receive is of a high international standard. The National Defence College has responded excellently to the training challenge posed by a changing world, an evolving society and the increasingly technological character of the Defence Forces. I thank you for a job well done and wish you success in your demanding task.