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SARAJEVO, September 30 (FENA) - BiH Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak met today in Sarajevo with Pekka Haavisto, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland, currently chairing the Council of the European Union.
The main topics of the meeting were bilateral relations, issues of the BiH integration into the EU, and the political situation in BiH and the region.
“As far as relations between us and Finland are concerned, they are at a very high level when we speak politically, but we must say that when it comes to the economy, they are quite underdeveloped.
Our trade exchange is around EUR 15 million a year, with virtually no investments. Together we stated that in the coming period it is necessary to bring the business communities of the two countries closer together and work on contractual regulations that will provide a formal framework for this to go faster,” Crnadak said at a press conference after the meeting.
The two assessed that there are opportunities to improve cooperation in the fields of tourism, timber industry, forestry, renewable energy, as well as issues related to improving the position of young people and the civil sector.
“We have devoted most of our time to the issues of our European integration process, and I would like to thank my colleague Haavisto and Finland for giving BiH and the Western Balkans a very high priority in their EU presidency,” Crnadak said, adding that Finland very strongly supports the region's progress towards the EU.
It is very important for us, Crnadak added, that there is peace in the region in the coming period, with complete stability and that we develop economically and constantly get closer to one another.
“I am convinced that this visit will be a very good signal, which comes in our difficult political moment, where eleven months after the elections we do not have the established state-level government, but nevertheless this visit is a proof of strong EU support for the people living here that the reforms are going forward, that the European path goes forward and ultimately that the life here is improving,” said Crnadak.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said he appreciated the close cooperation that exists between BiH and Finland.
“We welcome, for our part, the continuation of the enlargement process throughout the Balkans. You know that Finland has given its support to the opening of negotiations between Northern Macedonia and Albania, and we hope for some positive developments,” Haavisto said.
He added that today they discussed the possibilities of deeper and more active cooperation between the two countries, and expressed support for the soon formation of the authorities in BiH in order to enable the response of the local authorities to the implementation of the priorities from the European Commission’s Opinion.
“The EU strongly supports regional cooperation throughout the Western Balkans. With regard to bilateral cooperation, Finland is ready to advance this cooperation in any area, such as the environment, education, the rule of law and other,” said Haavisto.
(FENA) S. R.
