A broad discussion palette for the Foreign Ministers of Finland and Russia
“My colleague and I held many-sided talks on various matters in a good atmosphere”, said Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva at the press conference held together with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia following their bilateral meeting in Rovaniemi on 15 November. The talks addressed, among others, OSCE issues; Finland assumes the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) at the start of 2008. “During our talks we also agreed that discussions of experts will be launched trilaterally between Russia, Estonia and Finland to address recent airspace violations in the Baltic Sea”, the Foreign Minister added.
OSCE observation of the Russian elections a topic of discussion
Foreign Minister Lavrov confirmed that Russia supports Finland’s efforts aiming to raise the role of the OSCE. “We hope that the OSCE’s prestige will be restored during Finland’s chairmanship, and that the principles of the OSCE would be taken into account better”, he added. During the press conference, Lavrov denied that Russia would strive to impede the arrival of OSCE observers for the State Duma elections of 2 December and the work of the observers, for instance, by slowness in the granting of visas. “Russia fulfils the country’s OSCE obligations as prescribed in the OSCE regulations”, Foreign Minister Lavrov stressed a couple of times.
Lavrov also underscored that Russia would meet the country’s international obligations concerning observation of the elections, and that, by contrast, Russia hoped for better management of the OSCE’s observation of elections. He pointed out that Russia has made proposals for creating clearer rules governing the observation of elections, both in the OSCE and in the Council of Europe. Foreign Minister Lavrov hoped that Finland would support Russia’s development proposals.
Foreign Minister Kanerva said that, for Finland, OSCE cooperation is almost a question of one’s own child. Finland therefore will strive to ensure the future of the OSCE during the country’s chairmanship of the organisation.
Conventional arms agreement also discussed
Lavrov stated that the two foreign ministers had also discussed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which has been a topic of much debate in the past few months. Russia considers that the old agreement has lost its meaning, since nearly all of the signatories now belong to NATO. In a situation where the NATO members have not ratified the revised agreement, Russia cannot do so, either, Lavrov said. In other words, in Russia’s view everything depends on the NATO member states, he emphasised. As to the efforts of the NATO partnership countries with regard to the conventional arms agreement, however, Russia is satisfied.
Kanerva said that during the meeting, Finland had conveyed to Foreign Minister Lavrov that the Government of Finland is not preparing membership of NATO. “If the situation were to change, information would be given”, Kanerva continued. However, Finland’s partnership cooperation with NATO is very close, he added.
The Foreign Ministers to intensify their dialogue
Kanerva said he and Foreign Minister Lavrov had confirmed that in future the two countries will hold bilateral talks at the Foreign Minister level twice a year. Lavrov stated that the foreign ministers are carrying out “practical work and at the same time looking after the interests of their own citizens”. He said he was very pleased with the current state of relations between Finland and Russia and with the dialogue at various levels, including the meetings of the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the two countries. Lavrov confirmed he had invited Kanerva to visit Moscow during the first half of 2008.
*****
On 16 November, the day after the press conference, the Finnish News Agency STT released the following news:
The OSCE won’t send election observers to Russia
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has given up its intention to send election observers to Russia. Elections for the State Duma will be held on 2 December. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the OSCE office responsible for observing elections, explains its decision as resulting from the difficulties encountered in arranging observation of the elections. Russia has wished to restrict the activities of election observers, and there have problems in obtaining visas.