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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) marks, on Sunday, the anniversary of 100 years of Romanian-Finnish diplomatic relations and expresses its desire to continue to consolidate bilateral, European and global cooperation, a release sent to AGERPRES shows.
"Romania has recognized the independence of Finland on April 8, 2020. Diplomatic relations between Romania and Finland continued uninterrupted since then. The diplomatic missions were opened at the rank of legation, in 1920, in Bucharest, and in 1921, in Helsinki, the bilateral relations showing a continuous development, given shared interests. After a period of stagnation determined by the consequences of the Second World War, the relations between the two states intensified, the level of representation being raised to that of embassy in 1963," the MAE release also shows.
Romanian-Finnish relations are very good, developing constantly in recent years, both on the level of political-diplomatic dialogue, as well as at the economic and sectorial level, the quoted source mentions.
"On the economic level, bilateral exchanges knew an upward evolution starting with 2013, from 267 million euro to 402 million euro in 2019, when an increase of 3.46 pct over the same period of 2018 was recorded. Furthermore, Finland occupies the 30th position in the rankings of foreign investors in our country, with over 200 Romanian companies with Finnish capital and investments worth over 70 million euro," MAE adds.
The bilateral economic cooperation materialized also through the establishment in Romania of a research-development center in the IT domain, which targets the development of solutions in domains such as artificial intelligence, with the participation of scientists, students and professors in the international community and partners in the realm of research and innovation.
"The collaboration between Romania and Finland intensified in the past years also at the European level, the two countries being part, together with Croatia, of the same trio of Council of the EU presidencies, in the January 1, 2019 - June 30, 2020 period. Over the two successive presidencies of the Council of the EU, in the first and second quarters, respectively, of 2019, Romania and Finland worked closely, in line with the common program, to consolidate the European project and advance the major files at the European level. The cooperation between our countries contributed to the advancement of the European agenda over the entirety of 2019, and in the current context, given the complex challenges the European Union is facing, we hold the belief that the experience of cooperation between Finland and Romania will continue to bring an important contribution to the consolidation of a stronger and more cohesive Europe," MAE says.
Another reference moment during the relations of the two countries, the release mentions, was the accession of Romania, in the autumn of 2018, to the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, a platform that makes available to the 27 signatories, EU and NATO member-states, the best practices meant to consolidate the capacity to neutralize hybrid type threats.
