Juan David Latorre
On the occasion of Finland’s National Day, last Thursday the Finnish Ambassador, Sari Rautio, hosted a reception at her residence for the Diplomatic Corps, businessmen and members of the Finnish community in Spain.
“Next week Finland will be 106 years old as an independent country and I think we have a lot to celebrate, said Ambassador Sari Rautio at the beginning of her speech. We are a free, democratic country, a state governed by the rule of law, a welfare state, a country where we have free and good quality education, and a country with high technology. We are also a country that is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2035, there is very little left but we are committed”.
The Finnish ambassador welcomed the fact that “today Finland has no threat of war. Russia, which has threatened us so many times, is not threatening us militarily, but it is trying to destabilise our country, but Finland is strong and will continue to be a stable country.
Regarding Russia’s “illegal war” against Ukraine, Sari Rautio said that “for us Ukraine will always remain a sovereign, free, democratic country and a country that we have to defend and support. It is sad that this year is a period full of conflicts, like the one we have right now in the Middle East.
“All this forces us to think about peace, the ambassador continued. I would like to dedicate this speech to our former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari”, winner of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. “He dedicated his whole life to working for peace. He negotiated independence for Namibia, a solution for Kosovo, peace in Indonesia and Northern Ireland. Today, his foundation, the International Crisis Group, continues his work with its experts developing their work all over the world.”
“Peace work is something that also unites us with Spain. Both countries have in preventive diplomacy the mediation for everything that can be done for peace as a foreign policy priority. Spain has the resources and the vocation to work for peace, and we should all invest in it,” the Finnish ambassador pointed out.
Sari Rautio stressed that “both countries have invested in digitalisation and in the green transition and that is why, both politically and at a business level, we are collaborating a great deal and we hope that this collaboration will be fruitful. There are many Finnish companies present in Spain and my wish is that there will be more because these companies together with Spanish companies work for the good of the country and its citizens”. The ambassador pointed out that the Next Generation Funds are a “financing programme that helps to find new ways of collaboration in the future”.
Finally, the Finnish ambassador wanted to “congratulate Spain on a very successful presidency of the European Union. It has been a lot of work but with great results”.
Present at the reception were Raquel Gómez-Cambronero, general director of Western Central Europe and Southeast Europe; Enrique Yturriaga, general director of Ibero-America; and Charles Powell, director of the Elcano Royal Institute; along with various personalities and the ambassadors of the Holy See, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany, Cyprus, Australia, Austria, Kenya, Poland, Croatia, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium and Sweden, among others.
