Visit to Finland by Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Russia Nabiullina cancelled – Chairmen of the Finnish-Russian Working Group on Cross-border Traffic will meet at the end of July
Press release 262/2008
23 July, 20
Next Saturday’s visit to Finland by Elvira Nabiullina, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Russia, was cancelled due to her busy working schedule. Minister Nabiullina and Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paavo Väyrynen will meet next time in the autumn.
The Ministers have been in contact through correspondence in order to solve the problems caused by the traffic at the Finnish-Russian border. Minister Väyrynen sent Minister Nabiullina a letter on 22 July, again pointing out the serious problems brought about by Russian Government Decision 304 which bans car carriers’ passage through Vaalimaa frontier station.
Väyrynen mentioned in his letter that due to the serious problems, Finnish authorities are considering the cutting down on car carrier traffic through the frontier crossing points of Nuijamaa and Imatra. Väyrynen asked the Russian Government to cancel the Decision 304 immediately or at least to suspend its enforcement.
Minister Nabiullina suggested in her reply that the new Working Group on Cross-border Traffic of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation being set should have its meeting sooner than planned, as early as on 30-31 July. Finland agrees with the dates suggested. The Chairmen of the Working Group will be Pekka Huhtaniemi, Under-Secretary of State of External Economic Relations of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, and Aleksei Lihatšov, Head of Analysis and Regulation Department of the External Economic Relations of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and Trade.
The Finnish Foreign Ministry will submit a report on the influences of the Decision 304 and the restrictions planned by Finland to the Russian authorities before next week’s meeting.
The purpose of the Working Group on the Cross-border Traffic is to deal with all the measures that are needed in order to solve problems related to cross-border traffic.
More information: Marja Liivala, Counsellor, Foreign Ministry, tel. +358 0 40 827 3215, and Juhani Tervala, Head of Department, Ministry of Transport and Communications, tel. +358 50 552 7260.