Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen spoke on the phone with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak

Press release 196/2016
19 October 2016

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak spoke on the phone on 19 October 2016. Ministers discussed trade and the business environment between Finland and Russia and the work of the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation. The Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation will meet in Moscow in November 2016.

"Despite the decline in the volume of trade, more than 400 Finnish companies are still operating in Russia. A number of Finnish companies are also exporting and we need to support their operating conditions. The Intergovernmental Commission plays an important role in this respect," Minister Mykkänen says.

The previous joint meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission was organised in 2013 and the chairs met in St Petersburg in March 2016. The 15 sectoral working groups and nine regional working groups operating under the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation have functioned all the time.

The economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU continue to be in force and there are no grounds for their removal.

"The Intergovernmental Commission will discuss matters that do not fall under the sanctions and in which dialogue between neighbouring countries is necessary. We considered that the Intergovernmental Commission should now gather to handle the practical economic relations that are not restricted by the sanctions," Mykkänen notes.

Inquiries: Marja Koskela, Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, tel. +358 40 352 0463 and Johanna Lukkarila, Counsellor, Unit for Russia, Department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, tel. +358 50 411 5402.

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are of the format [email protected].