Government of the Republic of Estonia

11/10/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/10/2022 06:17

Kaja Kallas will meet Sanna Marin and participate together with other ministers in the Estonian-Finnish high-level cooperation seminar

Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu, Minister of Education and Science Tõnis Lukas, Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Riina Sikkut, and Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Kristjan Järvan will also participate in the seminar together with the Finnish ministers of the respective fields.

At the seminar, the government members will focus on the implementation of the recommendations of the Estonian-Finnish future cooperation report. The report presented this spring provides an overview of the current state of Estonian-Finnish relations and recommendations for new opportunities for cooperation. The recommendations primarily cover the topics of the digital and green future, economic promotion, and educational and cultural cooperation. The authors of the report are Jaak Aaviksoo and Anne-Mari Virolainen. The report is available here.

The prime ministers plan to discuss energy cooperation, support for Ukraine, security and NATO, bilateral cooperation, and European Union issues.

In the afternoon, the prime minister will give a presentation at Paasikivi Society, a prestigious Finnish foreign policy think tank.

At the bilateral meeting, the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu and the Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will discuss, among other things, relations between Estonia and Finland and the security situation in Europe.

The Estonian Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Kristjan Järvan and the Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harakka will sign a joint statement on the digitisation of the logistics sector. In addition, Minister Järvan will meet Finnish start-ups in the start-ups and entrepreneurship campus Maria 01.

Minister of Economy and Infrastructure Riina Sikkut will visit the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland to discuss nuclear energy.

In addition to the seminar, the Minister of Education and Science Tõnis Lukas will visit the University of Helsinki to meet Pirjo Hiidenmaa, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Terhi Ainiala, Head of Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian, and Scandinavian Studies, Professor Riho Grünthal, and Estonian language lecturers Sigrid Kaasik-Krogerus and Annekatrin Kaivapalu.

Dear journalists!

Journalists, photographers, and cameramen interested in covering the greetings, the opening moments of the seminar, the taking of the group photo, and the press conference of the prime ministers starting at 12:35 p.m. are asked to accredit themselves no later than Friday, 11 November, at 3 p.m., using the accreditation form of the Finnish Government Office.

Please bring an identity document. More information for the media can be found in the invitation from the Finnish Government Office.

The press conference will be held in Finnish and Estonian with simultaneous interpretation. A livestream broadcast of the press conference in both languages will be available here.

Journalists interested in the presentation of Prime Minister Kaja Kallas at the Paasikivi Society, starting at 1:30 p.m., please inform the Paasikivi Seura secretary by writing directly to [email protected]no later than Thursday, 10 November.