Official website of the President of Russia

Документ   /

Following the meeting, three documents were signed in the presence of the Presidents: the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Finland on the Transportation of Hazardous Cargoes along the Finnish-Russian International Railways; the Cooperation Agreement between the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and the Confederation of Finnish Industries; and the Cooperation Agreement between the Non-Profit Organisation Foundation for the Development of the Centre for Research and Commercialisation of New Technologies (Skolkovo Foundation) and the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes.

Vladimir Putin and Sauli Niinistö also made statements for the media and gave a joint news conference.

* * *

Beginning of the meeting with President of Finland Sauli Niinistö

President of Finland Sauli Niinistö (in Russian): Welcome to Finland! It’s a beautiful day today. Maybe this is a good sign.

(Re-translated) I am very pleased to welcome you here at the Kultaranta residence. We remembered our previous meeting, in Moscow, which was very successful.

At that meeting we discussed very important issues of our bilateral cooperation. I think we have already seen certain results and there has been some progress on these issues.

We have a busy schedule ahead of us today and I am sure that our talks will produce new results.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, thank you very much for the invitation.

I can see that I’m going to have to take up Finnish. As a child growing up in Leningrad I learned some Finnish words, though I'm afraid most of them are rather rude, so I had better learn to speak proper Finnish.

Thank you for inviting me here, to this residence and this city, which has close ties with St Petersburg for many years. With regard to inter-state relations, they are developing well and the growing trade is clear evidence of that.

We have impressive large-scale joint projects, and, importantly, they are becoming more and more diverse. I am happy to have this opportunity to meet with you and exchange views on current issues.

<…>