President Halonen met President Putin in St Petersburg

President of the Republic Tarja Halonen met President Vladimir Putin of Russia in St Petersburg on Tuesday, 13 June 2006. Presidents Halonen and Putin discussed cooperation in neighbouring areas and relation between Finland and Russia. They agreed that this good relationship will benefit the Finnish EU presidency. In addition, the two presidents talked about visas.

Photo: Lehtikuva / AFP Photo

President Halonen and President Putin also attended the X International St Petersburg Economic Forum which dealt with timely issues concerning the Russian and international economy, such as globalization, competitiveness and energy supply.

At the Economic Forum, President Halonen gave a speech. In this speech, Halonen, for example, talked about EU-Russia and Finnish-Russian relations. She also focused on the constituents of global economic development, such as natural resources and energy.

“Fostering ties between the European Union and Russia will be among the priorities of Finland's EU presidency during the second half of this year”, President Halonen said in her speech and continued: “Finland's historical links with Russia have given us unique knowledge of this country and its people and we follow with positive sentiments the rapid economic growth of our neighbour. Today Russia is among our biggest trading partners and Finnish investment in Russia is growing.”

President Halonen stated that energy is and will remain also on the EU agenda as we are trying to develop Energy Policy for Europe and a strategy on external energy relations. “Energy resources - as vast as they might seem to our generation - are nevertheless limited. There is an urgent need to work together to counter climate change by reducing emissions, developing energy saving, cleaner technologies and by developing renewable energy sources”, she reminded.

In her speech, President Halonen highlighted the overriding importance of human resources. “An educated and skilful human being is an excellent resource”, she emphasized. Halonen used Finland as an example of this: “Finland has developed from a relatively poor, agricultural country to a knowledge-based society with leading know-how in information and communications technology, metal and engineering and an excellent forest industry.” President Halonen also reminded about the importance of development: “In Finland we are, however, very aware of the fact that present success does not give any guarantees for the future. This is why we emphasise the importance of quality education for all.”

Full text of the speech