Transcript of the joint conference of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron and the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö

MIL OSI Translation. Government of the Republic of France statements from English to French – Published August 31, 2018

Section: International, development and francophonie

Only delivery is authentic Finland – Thursday, August 30, 2018

THE PRESIDENT (translation from the French): Thank you Mr President, thank you very much for your words and your welcome last night and today. I would really like to thank you warmly and tell you all the joy that is ours to make this trip to Finland. It had been nineteen years since a French President had made a trip to Helsinki, but it was particularly important for me to do so in this year marking the centenary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations – I recalled last night – since France was the first country with Sweden to recognize the independence of Finland on January 4, 1918 and it is also the year of an important birth: that of Aaro.

Mr President, irrespective of all the pleasure of being here and the joy of having found you after our exchanges a few months ago in Brussels at the NATO summit, I wanted to come back to the first subject, without doubt the most important that we mentioned, that of security and defense. Indeed, as you have said, we share the same vision on the political and geopolitical risks we face today and the need for a Europe that protects and protects itself.

You told me that it has been ten years since you expected to have a Europe aware of this and I believe that the joint declaration on European defense that we adopt on the occasion of this trip confirms our convergences in the and our Ministers of Defense will continue to work to make it as concrete as possible.

France has proposed a European intervention initiative and I am delighted that you have shown a willingness to join it and a strong interest in this initiative whose aim, beyond the policy that has already been adopted, PESCO therefore, permanent structured defense cooperation beyond the European Defense Fund, is an initiative that aims to bring together European countries to create a common strategic and defense culture. I think it is very important to share this between our two countries.

Our desire is also to go further and I hope that France can work with several states that face the same risks, the same uncertainties – we have mentioned them with regard to Sweden, Norway and Finland. – the existence of common geopolitical risks and I believe that in the context of this cooperation, France's role must also be to reinforce the strategy and common defense initiatives in this area.

It is clear that Europe is assuming this strategic autonomy which strengthens its solidarity in defense matters. This is the vision I presented almost a year ago at the Sorbonne, that of a more sovereign, united, more democratic Europe. Sovereignty is the ability to defend oneself, but it also passes through unity, that is, solidarity within it. In defense, that's exactly what we're doing. France has a military strategy and an investment strategy in this area. It is the law of military programming promulgated on July 14th.

It has adopted a European strategy by accompanying, by initiating some progress and I wish that we go now further by giving us a reinforced European solidarity. This is the proposal I made on Monday, that of bringing about a reform of Article 42-7 of the Lisbon Treaty, and of having in the European Union a kind of reinforced article 5 which marks a very strong solidarity among European Union countries in the field of defense.

That, I believe, is what we owe each other and we owe it to Europe to make it a reality for all the Member States and our fellow citizens. How to explain to the Member States that Europe is what protects them when, today, our other part of the Union, the reality of their daily lives, their deep conception, is that they are protected by the United States of America, primarily through NATO or otherwise.

NATO remains an important and strategic alliance and all our European advances are not progress contrary to those of NATO but we need to have a European strategy and reinforced European solidarity in this matter. That's what we both wear and that's what I want our two countries to push hard in the weeks and months ahead.

We also had extensive discussions with President NIINISTO on many other issues, peace and multilateralism, and I look forward to your participation at the Paris Peace Forum on November 11 and we will have the opportunity to meet again at United Nations General Assembly at the end of September. The transatlantic relations, obviously the relation with Russia and, on that, we have this will once Europe has this strategic and defense autonomy, to refound, to rethink the European security architecture in the broad sense with, as as I said a few months ago in St. Petersburg, the need to rethink our relationship with Russia.

Europe, for me, must be broad with concentric circles and the widest Europe is a Europe of value but it is also a Europe that builds its common security architecture with the powers that are at its disposal. margins and who are great peoples with whom we have a common history. Of course, our exchange also focused on environmental cooperation and in particular all the work that you have initiated on the Arctic and that we support and we will support.

Finally, our cooperation, our common role is also in terms of values. We are two peoples strongly committed to freedom, respect for human rights and we will have one then the other in the coming months important responsibilities to play in the Council of Europe. You will first have to assume the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. This presidency will be followed by a French presidency and we will have to work in this context to maintain the cohesion of the Council of Europe and its strength and I believe that we share the will to maintain this base of essential values ​​broad for our Europe.

This is what I wanted to remind you, I believe, in a very consistent way with you and in the continuity of your remarks, Mr. President. Thank you again for your welcome. Forgive me for letting you wait twenty years but recognize me one thing: I did not wait you for fifteen months and, for my part, I consider that we have a lot to do in particular on these geopolitical and defense topics together and that, I believe, is one of the cornerstones of a European ambition that we will continue to pursue for our two countries. Thank you.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a translation. Please accept our apologies should the grammar and / or sentence structure not be perfect.