Banquet Hall
Parliament Buildings

It is my great pleasure to welcome Her Excellency, President Tarja Halonen, and her distinguished delegation to Parliament today.

While this is the first visit by a President of Finland to New Zealand, President Halonen has visited our country before. In January 1999 as Foreign Minister of Finland, President Halonen came through New Zealand at the invitation of Hon Simon Upton, en route to the "Ministerial on Ice" meeting at our Antarctic research station at Scott Base. You return this year as we are celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of Scott Base, and we would like to thank Finland for its strong support for the Antarctic Treaty system.

Finland and New Zealand share many similarities – we have roughly the same land areas and population sizes – making us two of the least densely populated developed countries on earth. We are also part of a community of shared values, with our commitment to democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.

New Zealand and Finland led the world in enabling women to enjoy equal political rights. While New Zealand was the first country in the world in which women won the right to vote, I understand that Finland was the first country to introduce equal and universal suffrage and full political rights for women. That led to nineteen women being elected in Finland's first modern democratic election in 1907 – a remarkable achievement at that time. Indeed it was not until many decades later that women's representation in New Zealand reached anything like those numbers. When I was first elected in 1981 – there were precisely eight women members – admittedly an improvement from the upper limit of four achieved before!

Last year, the Finnish Parliament celebrated 100 years of parliamentary reform and universal suffrage. Our Speaker, Hon Margaret Wilson – the first woman elected to that position in our Parliament – was pleased to take part in the celebrations.

New Zealand and Finland share a vision for a just, secure, and sustainable world. That sees us working actively and closely together in the international sphere on issues including development, security, human rights and the environment.

During our talks today, the President and I talked about our common hopes for a lasting and comprehensive peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, and for future stability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both our countries are contributing to these and other security goals around the world.

An area where Finland and New Zealand share a great interest is in international crisis management.

Finland, like New Zealand, has long sent military peacekeepers to troubled nations. But, like New Zealand, it recognises that once law and order is stabilised, there is often a great deal of institutional rebuilding to be done and reconciliation to be achieved.

When President Halonen was Foreign Minister in Finland, she launched the European Union's initiative for civilian crisis management. Now Finland has developed a training centre for civilians who go to troubled nations in a range of capacities – including as election and human rights monitors.

This represents a professionalisation of work which our countries and others have undertaken for many years, and we are interested in learning more about the Centre's activities.

Finland, like New Zealand, has had to reshape its economy substantially to sustain high living standards for 21st century conditions.

Policy makers here are very familiar with the Nokia story, and with how Finland has emerged over the past decade and a half as a leading innovator in information and communications technologies.

Yesterday leading policy-makers and practitioners from Finland and New Zealand came together in Auckland to discuss the strengths and challenges of our respective innovation systems, and to make contacts for future collaboration in research and commercialisation. The seminar, at which President Halonen and the New Zealand Minister of Economic Development Trevor Mallard both spoke, has pointed the way to more collaboration between us. New Zealand has strengths in ICT, and also in the life sciences and biotechnology where Finland too is keen to innovate.

Our scientists and researchers may also interact more in future through New Zealand's relationship with the European Union's science programmes. We are currently seeking to upgrade our science relationship with the European Union from an arrangement to a formal agreement.

Overall Finland's accession to the European Union in 1995 has given more impetus to our bilateral relationship. The EU is New Zealand's second largest trading partner, after Australia, and a valuable partner for New Zealand on many international issues.

Finland has just stepped down from its six-month Presidency of the European Union. We are fortunate to have the President and senior Finnish Foreign Affairs officials here so soon afterwards to discuss the experiences and insights gained during the Presidency.

We in turn hope that our perspectives on the Asia Pacific region will be of interest to Finland. As partners with common values, we welcome Finland's and the EU's increasing interest and profile in this region.

At our dinner last night, we were able to discuss many policy areas where Finland and New Zealand can learn from each other. In the past year New Zealand Ministers have visited Finland to study both labour productivity and more enlightened penal policies. I see great potential for ongoing policy exchanges across economic, social, and environmental policy.

I hope too that the profile this presidential visit gains in Finland will encourage more young Finns to travel to New Zealand under our relatively new working holiday agreement. They will be following in the footsteps of Finnish people who came here from the earliest times of European exploration and settlement, and of those who came in the 1950s to help us build our pulp and paper industry.

Ladies and gentlemen, can I now ask you to rise to a toast to the President and people of the Republic of Finland.