21.08.2023
Economics and security as themes for the seminar
On Thursday 17 August 2023, the Regional Council of Northern Ostrobothnia, together with the City of Oulu, organised a Northern Security and Economic Seminar in the Old Oulu Barracks area.
The seminar was held after the change in the Finnish security environment. At the same time, the importance of northern Finland as a provider of security of supply and transport connections increased. The aim of the seminar was to combine geopolitical change with geoeconomic change, as the market does not exist separately from political interests.
President of the Provincial Council who opened the event Mari-Leena Talvitie He said his eyes turned to the north.
– The region is of great geopolitical importance to Finland and the scale of economic opportunities is nationally significant. For this reason, the Government Programme provides for the preparation of a separate Northern Programme under the direction of the Prime Minister's Office.
The Prime Minister's Office will begin preparations for the Northern Programme in August-September 2023.
Ambassador of Finland to Barents, and Ambassador of Finland to Canada, Jari Vilén In turn, he reviewed the prospects for regional cooperation in the Arctic and Barents region. He was also very much in favour of organising similar events in the future.
Green transition
One of the cornerstones of Finland's policy towards Russia was to tie Russia to interdependence through trade. This was also commonly thought of in Europe before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, the bottom has fallen away from this idea, as Russia has harnessed energy as part of the warfare. This has led to an increase in energy investment in Europe.
The economic perspective was also raised at the seminar by the Deputy Head of Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Mikael Antell. He stressed the importance of combining security policy and economics in the title of the seminar.
– Without security and economy, there can be no prosperity, he said.
Antell leads the team that is currently negotiating a bilateral Defence Cooperative Agreement (DCA) with the United States and Finland. Once approved, the U.S. Congress will have the opportunity to provide investment finance. He was not yet able to say about the potential investments, but he stressed that they are based on our common needs and interests.
The economic perspective was also raised by the Regional Director Markus Erkkilä Counsellor of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Jyrki Nissilä.
Markus Erkkilä focused on the green transition. According to Erkkilä, a stronger combination of energy production and use is important, and the industrial policy strategy mentioned in the Government Programme aims at precisely this.
Jyrki Nissilä reminded of the intertwining of economy and security. Geopolitics was a competition between China and the United States, both between systems and in the development of critical technologies.
NATO and the North
Finland is now a member of the NATO alliance, and this requires a change of attitude and state of mind from both a security and an economic point of view.
– The Finnish Defence Forces are committed to defending every square centimetre of our own country, but now our capabilities and activities are being analysed as part of the alliance, said the Lapland Air Force Commander. Tuukka Karjalainen.
It was only in February 2022 that Europe became aware of Russia’s illegal and aggressive behaviour, united and strong. the Arctic Ambassador Petteri from Vuorimäki asked why the European Union did not react already in 2014 following Russia’s illegal occupation of the Crimean peninsula and the invasion of the Donbass in eastern Ukraine.
Vuorimäki said that in 2014 the organisation of summits was abolished and Russian funds and visas were frozen. Several people were placed on the sanctions list. The EU also imposed import bans, including an export ban on deep-sea drilling technology in the Arctic.
– These measures were not particularly lenient in that situation, but they are light-years away from the measures which have now been taken.
