OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne at a meeting in Moscow on Monday discuss the development of bilateral relations, as well as relations between Russia and the European Union, the situation in Ukraine and other topics. “Finland is our good neighbor and good partner, so we look forward to developing relations with your state”, Medvedev told his Finnish counterpart at the beginning of the negotiations.

Rinne, in turn, suggested discussing bilateral issues, including cooperation between the Russian Federation and Finland in the areas of ecology and forestry, as well as exchanging views on topics of relations between Russia and the European Union, security in the Baltic Sea region, the situation in Ukraine, the activities of the Council of Europe and etc. “We’ll definitely talk about all this”, Medvedev replied.

At the beginning of the conversation, the Finnish Prime Minister also stressed that the Russian-Finnish agenda “has no particular cause for concern”. He drew attention to the active contacts of the two countries, including at the regional level. Rinne noted that Russians are the largest group of foreign tourists in Finland, and the number of visas issued by the Finnish side to Russian citizens has increased by 25% this year.