President Kaljulaid on state visit to Finland
President Kersti Kaljulaid spent Thursday on a state visit to Finland, where she met with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö. The press conference following the visit was dominated by questions relating to security issues in the Baltic Sea area.
When the presidents were asked about their position in the matter of additional economic sanctions imposed on Russia, Kaljulaid said that if they worked, they should be used as well. In contrast, President Niinistö was more cautious, saying that he “didn’t exclude” further sanctions.
Kaljulaid said that sanctions were a difficult subject for both Estonia and Finland, as both countries’ economies were vulnerable. But it was necessary to consider what was at stake, and in this case, it was lives in Ukraine as well as in Syria.
The presidents admitted that there may be a slightly different understanding of how exactly a dialogue with Russia should be pursued, but agreed that on the whole, the two countries’ attitudes were the same.
“We are on the same page, and we speak the same language. Because of this it isn’t necessary to use exactly the same words. I completely accept that countries may have different approaches,” Kaljulaid said.
President Niinistö said that Finland believed in deterrence as well as dialogue.
President Kaljulaid will continue her first visits abroad, going on to Riga, where she will meet with Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis and Speaker of the Saeima Ināra Mūrniece.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn