"Mr President, esteemed fellow Speakers,

For the past three and a half years, our agenda has been dominated by the criminal aggression by the Russian federation against Ukraine, and its local and global consequences and side effects. Therefore I want to address the question in my speech.

It is unfortunate that the Russian regime has become a source of grief for its neighbors and a tragedy for its own population. Indeed, we hope that the Russians themselves begin to think whether they are now happier, more prosperous, or more free than they were before the invasion. The oligarchs are, undoubtedly, doing fine, but for the ordinary Russians the war has meant more than a million people dead or maimed, travel restrictions, rising prices, uncertainty.

The situation is grim for all of us. Since Russia has become a rogue state and a permanent threat, Europe and NATO must invest more tax-money in hard security. But there are also positive aspects: We have learned the danger of building strategic dependences on totalitarian actors. Once we are free from Russian gas and oil, they can no longer be weaponized against us. We must reduce similar dependences in other sectors as well by repatriating production and industries and by increasing cooperation between civilized nations.

Finland and Sweden joined NATO as a result of the Russian aggression which brought us closer with our like-minded partners, thereby making us and all of Europe safer and stronger. This is also a positive outcome and the exact opposite of what the Moscow regime intended to achieve.

But the most important lesson of the past three years has been that totalitarian dictatorships are not strong. They are corrupt and weak, economically, technologically, morally and even militarily. Up until February 2022, it was widely believed that Russia has the second most powerful army in the world. It was supposed to take Kyiv in three days. The war has now dragged on for three and a half years, and Russia uses untrained recruits, prison inmates and North-Koreans as cannon-fodder. Unable to make meaningful progress on the battlefield, Russian generals vent their frustration by bombing schools, hospitals and residential buildings.

There are some countries both in Europe and elsewhere who think they can benefit from supporting Russia. The recent events in the Caucasus, Syria, and Iran have demonstrated the worth of Russia as a strategic partner and ally. And I hope this is something that everybody considers very carefully. If you get in trouble, dictators will not come to your rescue. They will betray you and let you down, because they are only concerned about their own immediate interests.

In these difficult times, it is vitally important that peace-loving nations talk to each other despite having different values and societal models. Instead of lecturing, finger-pointing and focusing on differences, we should seek shared goals and common denominators in a spirit of mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. A rules-based world-order is one such common denominator. I wish to thank the colleagues from the north, the south, the west and the east with whom I have had an opportunity to exchange views during my time as Speaker."

Lue lisää puhemiesten maailmankonferenssista