Press points of Minister Timo Soini at Press Conference with German  Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas 

Foreign minister Timo Soini's Press Conference with German Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas on 25th May 2018.

  • I want to warmly thank Minister Heiko Maas for joining us in Helsinki today. We had very fruitful discussions. Germany is an important  - strategic - partner for Finland.

  • We noted that there is a need to deepen cooperation. As like-minded countries we will actively seek common positions. This is particularly important now when Europe is facing many new challenges.                                                                                  

  • So Minister Maas and I have asked  our civil servants to come up with concrete cooperation initiatives so that we can further deepen our cooperation –for example in issues like Artic and PESCO.

  • The Baltic Sea has special economic and security importance for all countries in the region. This is sometimes forgotten when we talk about current tensions in Europe. The Baltic Sea is a European sea and thus a key for the security of the EU’s as well as Nato.

  • Finland  - and Sweden – have a long experience and knowledge about the region.  It is important to share this also with our partners. Hence, the 29+2 cooperation in Nato continues to be very useful for this purpose.

  • Regarding transatlantic relations, we discussed how to foster the openness of global trade, reduce trade policy frictions and how to uphold the rules-based international system.

Speeches held by Ministers and the top leadership of the Ministry.