Finland eyes doubling trade with India, driven by the EU-India FTA.
Finnish envoy highlights growing bilateral ties and Indian professionals in Finland.
Finland backs India’s permanent UNSC seat and dialogue on Ukraine.
Finland believes its trade with India, currently about $3 billion, can grow two-fold, and the India-European Union free trade agreement (FTA) will be the main driver, Mikko Kivikoski, the Finnish ambassador to India, said on Monday.
Speaking to the media for the first time since taking up his post, Kivikoski said the deal would give both sides a “political and economic framework” to turn a recent surge in bilateral contact into real business.
Leaders of the two countries have already set a target of doubling trade, he said, adding that Finnish companies are showing genuine interest in the Indian market.
Kivikoski called this year one of the record engagements between the two countries. He pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's exchanges with Finland, the state visit to India by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and the Nordic–India Summit in Oslo.
The envoy also spoke about people-to-people ties. More than 30,000 Indians live permanently in Finland, he said, most of them working in information and communication technology and engineering.
He described them as a well-integrated and well-respected community. Helsinki hopes to see more skilled Indian professionals arrive under the mobility partnership the two countries have agreed to, he added.
Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo had said during a visit to New Delhi in February that his country aimed to double trade with India by the early 2030s.
EU-India FTA
The EU and India concluded FTA negotiations on January 27 this year. The agreement is still to be signed and ratified by the bloc's 27 member states before it takes effect.
In August, Antti Herlevi, a trade counsellor at the Finnish embassy, told Outlook he expected the pact to be finalised at the end of this year or early next year.
On India's Bid For A Permanent UN Security Council Seat
Kivikoski said Finland is a strong supporter of multilateralism, and the reason is “quite clear”.
“We have openly said that we are supporting India's permanency in the United Nations Security Council and we also want to see that there will be more new permanent members, two from Asia, two from Africa and perhaps one from Latin America,” he said.
Asked about India's call to resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue, he said, “Absolutely, that's the only way we can do it. There needs to be a negotiated solution... Finland highly appreciates all the activities that India is conducting at the moment.”
