Sipilä-Medvedev meet focuses most on climate

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Wednesday said the Ukrainian conflict is strongly reflected in the relations between the European Union and Russia, and the latter has to play a key role to find out a solution.

“The Ukrainian conflict is strongly reflected in the relations between the EU and Russia. The relations depend on finding a solution to the conflict, where Russia has a key role. Despite the sanctions in force, the EU and Russia are neighbours and dialogue between them is vital,” Sipilä told a joint press conference following a meeting with his visiting Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev in the afternoon.

This was the fourth meeting between the two prime ministers. They discussed bilateral relations and certain regional and international issues.

“Contacts between our two countries on the level of the civil society are also very important for Finland,” an official press release quoted Sipilä as saying.

“The main topics for me and my colleague today are environmental questions. The environment knows no national borders. Through persistent cooperation over the years we have managed to improve the state of the Baltic Sea. Now we wish to draw attention to climate issues more broadly,” the Finnish head of government told the press.

International climate negotiations and reduction of black carbon emissions were also on the meeting’s agenda on which Sipilä said Finland is prepared to organise an Arctic summit during its chairmanship of the Arctic Council. Among the key targets of the summit is to promote practical action to reduce black carbon emissions.

The leaders of the two next-door neighbouring countries also discussed Finnish-Russian cooperation in the waste sector and visited a waste treatment and recycling plant of Fortum.

“We had a good talk about the economic relations between our two countries. The volumes of trade between Finland and Russia have stayed about the same as last year. Russia remains one of the most important trading partners for us. However, for Finland the trade balance is showing a permanent deficit,” Sipilä told the pressmen.

The Finnish PM also mentioned that in Russia, Finland has investment projects worth EUR 12 billion under way and new projects are being planned. Finland is the largest per capita foreign investor in Russia, he reiterated, adding, even if faced with difficulties at times, Finnish companies still operate in Russia on a long-term basis.

“Today the Finnish company Valmet and Russian SVEZA have signed a Protocol of Intent concerning technology for the SVEZA pulp mill to be built in Russia. Particular attention will be paid to minimising the environmental load. We also talked about the Hanhikivi 1 nuclear power plant. In Finland security always comes first – at all stages of building a nuclear power plant,” he told the press meet.

The security of the Baltic Sea region and growing maritime transport in the Gulf of Finland were also talked about in the meeting. The main international questions discussed were Ukraine and Syria.

In this regard, Sipilä said, “In Finland we are particularly concerned about the suffering of the civilian population, getting humanitarian aid to the area and finding a sustainable solution. One issue discussed in public that I also mentioned was the situation of film director Oleg Sentsov, which has been a matter of some concern in Europe.”