“The tense geopolitical reality and newly emerging challenges to the security of the region commit our countries to strengthen cooperation across all fields. Finland faces the same threats like Lithuania. Aggressive military force is demonstrated at our borders. The air space is being violated. Russian warships conduct dangerous maneuvers in the Baltic Sea. Therefore active cooperation between NATO and neutral Finland and Sweden is a necessity today,” the President said.
Lithuania and Finland are already exchanging information on air and sea surveillance. Finland takes part in NATO’s air, land and naval exercises. Both countries are strengthening and upgrading their defense capabilities. Lithuania has reinstated compulsory military service. Finland has mixed armed forces combining both professionals and conscripts. It yearly trains about 25 thousand conscripts. Finland’s defense budget equals 1.37 percent of GDP. This year, Lithuania has increased its defense spending to 1.5 percent of GDP.
The two presidents discussed the migration crisis and measures to overcome it as well as the need to strengthen the EU’s external borders. European countries are confronting refugee flows from both the South and the North. It is not excluded that a new migration route can open up across the Russian border. Finland had to deal with such a situation when refugees from Syria were systematically moved to its borders from Russia.
The meeting also focused on nuclear safety in the region. The President underlined that unsafe nuclear power plants posed a threat to all people across the region. No borders can stop radiation or radioactive water. The international community must therefore demand that from the very start all nuclear energy projects are implemented in strict compliance with international safety standards.
Rosatom is constructing a nuclear power plant in Astravyets, Belarus, which does not correspond to international requirements. Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have expressed concern over its safety. Rosatom also intends to construct a nuclear power plant in Finland.
Views were exchanged on strengthening economic cooperation ties. Finland is Lithuania’s ninth largest foreign investor. It has launched 15 investment projects in Lithuania, generating more than half a billion euros. Among the Finnish companies operating in Lithuania are the Kitron electronic manufacturing services supplier, the Paroc insulation manufacturer, Fazer Foods, the Ruukkii metal product manufacturer and supplier, the Fortum combined heat and power plant. Outokumpu – the global leader of high performance stainless steel – is opening a business service center in Vilnius.
In Helsinki, the President will also meet with Prime Minister Juha Sipilä and Speaker of the Finnish parliament Maria Lohela.
