The two government leaders made a thorough review of bi-lateral issues. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told a press conference that the agenda for the talks covered 25 separate points. In addition to forest industry and economic concerns, discussions of a natural gas pipeline was the main topic.
Vanhanen told the press that the planned pipeline, running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, can be built if agreement can be reached on environmental questions. Putin pointed out that the Nord Stream project is a broad European matter involving many countries in need of Russian gas.
Putin said that he sees no reason why Russian cannot build the pipeline through Finnish territory. Vanhanen reminded the press that the permit process has not yet been completed.
Forestry issues to be settled in the autumn
Both Finland and Russia have been hit by the global economic crisis, and the two prime ministers said that in the situation, efforts are needed to promote cooperation. Although the forest sector was discussed, no news was released concerning Russian plans to impose new export tariffs on timber. However, a special Finnish-Russian "forestry summit" is to be held this coming autumn.
New Russian plans to require the transfer container traffic from road to rail were also discussed. Vanhanen stressed that last year only a fraction of the containers shipped through Finland to Russia were carried by rail and that making the switch away from road haulage will take time.
According to Putin, Wednesday's talks were carried out in a constructive spirit. He pointed out that trade between the two countries hit a new record high last year, and that it was decided during a visit by Vanhanen to Moscow not to impose higher tariffs on raw timber exports to Finland. He furthermore said that Russia will take Finland's wishes into consideration in the issue of cross-border transport, but did not make a concrete statement about the issue.
The Russian Prime Minister added that in his view economic relations must adapt to the general situation and efforts should be focused in the fields of energy, transport and some others, including shipbuilding.