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The most important instruments of foreign policy for Latvia and Finland are shared values and interests, President of Finland Alexander Stubb said in an address to MPs at an extraordinary sitting of the Saeima on Tuesday, 16 September. Stubb emphasised the security environment in our region, calling on parliamentarians through their actions to ensure that our common interests are upheld.

Stubb also underscored the need to maintain and strengthen cooperation among democratic countries, including with the United States, in order to raise awareness of developments in our region. He also underlined the importance of strengthening personal relations at the international level, while retaining our values, and voicing our opinions. In his address to the Saeima, the Finnish President also highlighted the unity of both countries regarding Ukraine, stressing that Ukraine is fighting for European values and must remain independent while maintaining its territorial integrity. At the same time, Stubb noted that peace talks can only begin once the fighting has ceased.

Prior to his address to the Saeima, the President of Finland met with Speaker of the Saeima Daiga Mieriņa, members of the Saeima Presidium—Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, Antoņina Ņenaševa, Edvards Smiltēns and Jānis Grasbergs—as well as Chair of the Saeima Defence, Internal Affairs and Corruption Prevention Committee Raimonds Bergmanis.

“Finland’s development has been an example for Latvia since the restoration of our independence. Our countries also share much in common: love for our land, respect for history and nature,” Speaker of the Saeima Mieriņa told the President of Finland. During the meeting, the parties underlined the importance of cooperation and the shared interests of the two countries, both in the Baltic Sea region and within Europe and NATO, including supporting Ukraine.

Latvia and Finland are close friends, and in recent years bilateral relations have deepened further due to regional security challenges and Finland’s accession to NATO, the participants of the meeting noted.

The Speaker of the Saeima and Stubb also highlighted the successful cooperation between Latvia and Finland in the NB8 format—the Baltic and Nordic countries. The participants of the meeting stressed the need to continue close cooperation to strengthen the security and defence of the region, in particular by enhancing resilience to hybrid threats, restricting the activities of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea and providing support to Ukraine.

The parties agreed that economic pressure on Russia must now be intensified. “Latvian society expects more decisive action from politicians to ensure that the frozen assets of the aggressor state can be used to finance Ukraine’s needs,” Mieriņa emphasised. “We can clearly see that Russia has no interest in peace talks and continues to seek at all costs to seize more Ukrainian territory,” Mieriņa said, underlining the need to continue strengthening our defence and deterrence capabilities.

Latvia greatly benefits from Finland’s long-standing experience in the development of shelters, in the context of strengthening societal resilience and civil protection, Mieriņa noted. Meanwhile, in discussing cooperation in the military sphere, the Speaker of the Saeima stressed the importance of developing production domestically and investing in local companies. The meeting participants also raised the issue of Latvia joining the Finnish-led coalition on civil shelters.

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Saeima Press Service