Thank you very much once again!
Dear attendees,
Dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear Petteri,
Dear journalists, business representatives of both our countries,
Today, we continue our cooperation with Finland – and this continuation is concrete and very substantive. We are in constant communication with our partners, with Finland. We are in contact with the President of Finland, Alex Stubb. We recently had a meeting in Norway, and it was an important one, covering security, defense, and diplomatic issues. And we are working just as substantively with the Government of Finland – with the Prime Minister, with Petteri. We have excellent relations. Thank you for this cooperation, Petteri, you personally, for this level of our relations, the relations between our countries and our people.
Today, we have a new support package for Ukraine from Finland, and we have agreements that expand our opportunities for cooperation. Seven documents – you have just seen this – seven documents were signed. And the total value of today's agreements is around €300 million.
Importantly, the Drone Deal with Finland is already actively underway, and within this agreement, there are measures worth €200 million. These are very important steps, a very important beginning, and a clear strengthening of our capabilities, the security capabilities of Ukraine and Finland.
Today, we discussed our joint work under the European SAFE program. And we ask Finland to help us, to ensure that we have co-production, and to help us finance weapons production during such a war, specifically through the SAFE instrument. This benefits Europe as a whole. Because this is about Ukraine's security and Europe's security.
We agreed to make greater use of Finland's satellite capabilities. And this is important for our defense, for resilience, for Ukraine, for Europe. We reached an agreement on this today and discussed opportunities for such cooperation – with Nokia and ICEYE. I am very grateful for this conversation, for this dialogue.
We are grateful for your readiness to support our logistics and our energy sector – these are Russia's key targets right now. Having more locomotives and more energy equipment – and I congratulate our prime ministers on signing this agreement on locomotives – is important. All of this is protection, and all of this can support us right now.
We held a business forum – Ukraine and Finland, companies from our countries. Companies with different areas of focus, from different sectors: defense, the construction of protective structures first of all, the construction of shelters, and industry. It is important that even now, at such a time of war, we have the potential for economic cooperation. We discussed joint production both in Ukraine and in Finland, localization here in our country, and joint technological projects that could be very useful for Finland and Ukraine. We discussed how we can develop joint R&D initiatives as a separate area of cooperation under the Drone Deal. Once again, we thank every company here today, every company working with Ukraine and helping us, helping Ukraine. And this certainly strengthens both countries.
Finland is a leader of the Shelter Coalition. We have an agreement that within this Coalition, we will work to secure additional opportunities, additional funding, to put it simply, for shelter construction in Ukraine. Construction is already underway in different regions of our country – various projects. Some we will complete in the near future, while others are more complex – particularly shelters in hospitals. All of this needs to be built, and construction is underway. And we are also placing emphasis on providing mobile shelters. Quick solutions.
The fact is that the Shelter Coalition has begun its work. We agreed that Finland would try to organize an international meeting with other countries participating in the Shelter Coalition. There are already 16 members of the Coalition, and it will expand. We need meetings, we need appropriate formats to provide more funding for such important projects, unquestionably important ones. Of all countries in Europe, Finland has the greatest experience and the highest quality of shelter construction.
And, of course, before our forum, Petteri and I discussed many different issues. I focused on air defense. This remains our constant priority with all our partners, with everyone who can strengthen Ukraine specifically in air defense. I thank Finland for helping us in this area as well. We count on further positive steps and news regarding air defense in the near future.
And our special gratitude for supporting Ukraine's European integration. Petteri, thank you for supporting us. Finland clearly understands why Europe and the Euro-Atlantic community need Ukraine and Ukrainians, and supports our progress accordingly. It is important that we open all six clusters in the accession negotiations by the end of this year and move further toward full membership in the European Union. Everyone did well, everyone worked hard – both our partners and our teams. Four clusters have been opened, two more to go – and we'll have completed this path. But there are still many different challenges ahead. Thank you for your visit, Petteri. And thank you once again for your support.
Glory to Ukraine!
