Prime Minister Marin meets with Australian Prime Minister Albanese

Prime Minister Sanna Marin met with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney on Friday 2 December.

This week, Prime Minister Marin made official visits to Australia and New Zealand. This is first time that a prime minister of Finland has made an official visit to either country. Prime Minister Marin was accompanied on her visit by Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari and a Finnish business delegation.

Relations between Finland and Australia have diversified in recent years. Bilateral trade has seen strong growth, and Finnish businesses have an active presence in Australia. Both countries are staunch defenders of the multilateral system, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and free trade. 

In their meeting, the prime ministers discussed Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, support for Ukraine, Finland’s future NATO membership, the situation in the Indo-Pacific and major power relations. 

The prime ministers jointly condemned Russia’s illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its blatant violations of international law and the UN Charter. They reiterated their unwavering support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and demanded that Russia put an end to its war and withdraw its troops from Ukraine immediately. They expressed their commitment to work together with the international community to continue supporting Ukraine. 

In order to respond to a changing international security environment and defend common values, like-minded countries need to reinforce their cooperation. Australia and Finland are strong supporters of the multilateral system. Finland can offer reliable solutions in areas such as new technologies, the digital transformation, mining technologies and the green transition. 

Prime Minister Marin’s visit is also the first visit of an EU Head of State or Government to Australia since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The prime ministers exchanged views on relations between the EU and Australia and reaffirmed their commitment to the swift conclusion of a modern and ambitious EU-Australia Trade Agreement. Finland would like to see more cooperation between the EU and Australia, especially around research, innovation and new technologies.

The prime ministers also discussed climate change and the green transition. In connection with their meeting, the prime ministers adopted a joint declaration emphasising the importance of cooperation between progressive and like-minded countries and the possibilities it has to offer in different sectors. 

Prime Minister speaks at Lowy Institute

On Friday, Prime Minister Marin took part in a discussion event on security issues at the internationally renowned Lowy Institute. In her address, the Prime Minister focused on the lessons learned from recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression. These include the need to deepen cooperation between democracies in developing new technologies, ensuring a sufficient skills base and securing the availability of critical raw materials and medical supplies.  

Together with the business delegation, Prime Minister Marin and Minister Skinnari had several meetings with representatives of business and industry. On Friday, they attended the opening of the new KONE Customer Experience Center and the launch of cooperation between Nokia and the Australian National Broadband Network (NBN) in Sydney (press release updated to include information about Nokia and NBN on 2 December 2022 at 11.00).

The delegation of Finnish companies, coordinated by Business Finland, had representatives from CSC – IT Center for Science, Kone Corporation, Neste Corporation, Nokia Corporation and WithSecure.

Inquiries: Lauri Voionmaa, Special Adviser (International Affairs), tel. +358 295 160 306, Iida Vallin, Special Adviser (Communications and Media Relations), tel. +358 295 160 947 and Päivi Paasikoski, Director of Government Communications, tel. +358 40  547 6279, Prime Minister’s Office; Tiina Vainio, Special Adviser (media relations), tel. +358 295 350 148, Arto Haapea, Director (Unit for Eastern Asia and Oceania), Ministry for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 295 350 416 and Ryan Hemingway, Communications Coordinator, Embassy of Finland, Canberra, tel. +61 2 6273 3800, [email protected]