Paet Pitches Joint Representation of Estonia, Finland
Meeting with Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki today, Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet called for further Estonian-Finnish cooperation in areas of shared foreign policy interests.
A fine example of such cost-effective teamwork cited by Paet is the Estonian-Finnish diplomatic personnel exchange program. "Next we will be welcoming a Finnish diplomat to our embassy in Georgia; last year an Estonian diplomat worked at the Finnish Embassy in Zambia," Paet said. "In addition, joint Estonian-Finnish visits joined by business delegations provide good opportunities for introducing the region and developing trade relations. One good example is the recent joint visit to Indonesia."
Paet also said that the Foreign Ministry plans this year to open two more honorary consulates, in Rovaniemi and Kuopio, bringing the total number of honorary consulates in Finland to eight. One of the things that has made addressing the needs of Estonian and Finnish citizens much easier is the legal aid agreement concluded last year, which allows for documents from both countries’ population registers to be recognised without an apostille, he said.
Some of the promising areas of future cooperation between Estonia and Finland mentioned in the course of the meeting were cyber defense and joint development aid projects in Afghanistan. "Potential co-operation projects could be related to increasing women’s rights or business training for young people."
Paet also gave a rundown to Tuomioja of the latest developments in the Rail Baltic venture. "Decisions have been made regarding the route and administrative structure. Now Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania must coordinate starting the thematic plan, which will provide the basis for technical projects."
Erkki Sivonen