-No doubt, Finland is one of our main partners in Europe, PM Putin told his Finnish counterpart in today’s meeting. –According to our statistics, Russia the first half of the year passed Germany as Finland’s biggest trade partner, he added, the Russian government website reports.
In their meeting, the two premiers discuss the volatile timber trade between Finland and Russia. Next year, Russia plans to drastically increase export duties on timber. Also on the agenda was the global financial crisis, transport and border issues, as well as technological cooperation, a press release from the Finnish government reads.
Timber trade was high on the prime ministers’ meeting agenda. Finland is a major critic of the rapidly increasing Russian export tariff on round timber, which is hurting the Finnish timber processing industry. Finnish officials have on several occasions warned that the timber issues will be included in international relations, among them the starting talks on a new EU-Russia partnership agreement.
In his meetings with Minister Lavrov, Aleksander Stubb said that he supports discussions on the future of security in Europe within the OSCE framework, a Finnish press release reads. That message is likely to be positively received in Moscow, where President Medvedev lately has been pushing for the establishment of a new international security treaty
Finland is currently Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE.
Finnish-Russian relations have over the last years seen a major strenghtening of cross-border trade and contacts. As BarentsObserver reported, consular services in Finland expect the number of visas issued to Russians this year will amount to 735,000, which is more than the double of the number in 2005.
Also cross-border trade has boosted. However, over the last month, a sharp decrease in trade has been observed. According to figures from the Russian Customs, trade between the two countries was down 21 percent the first nine months of the year compared with the same period in 2007. That negative trend is likely to follow both the stricter Russian export policy on timber, as well as the starting financial crisis.
