00:00Mr. President, you had a very long conversation with Prime Minister Modi yesterday at the Hyderabad House.
00:06So how much was the West Asia conflict and the Russia-Ukraine war was discussed between you two?
00:12And what is Finland's stance in the current situation in the Middle East that you are seeing?
00:16It's been over a week now.
00:19So to start off with, you know, it's an honour and privilege to spend three hours in the presence of
00:25the Prime Minister of India.
00:26So we had a very good and engaging, broad-ranging conversation about conflicts around the world, about relations to China,
00:36relations to the U.S., relations to Russia and relations to Europe and, of course, bilateral as well.
00:44And the two key conflicts that we focused on was Ukraine and, of course, Iran.
00:52On the latter, which you call West Asia, we have seen an escalation that we haven't seen in recent times.
01:02Conflicts after the Cold War used to be quite local.
01:05Now they have become regional, whether it's Russia, Ukraine, or now Iran, and then missiles flying to 12 to 13
01:13countries.
01:14So, you know, I gave my assessment of the situation and called for the importance of de-escalation.
01:23I briefed the Prime Minister about my conversations with the President of the United Arab Emirates and the Emir of
01:31Qatar.
01:32I yesterday spoke with the King of Jordan.
01:35So the situation is on a knife edge.
01:37And, of course, we want to stay out of the conflict.
01:40But the truth is that there's always an impact, whether it's oil prices, whether it's trade, whether it's maritime.
01:48So we were not able to solve it or de-escalate.
01:50But hopefully we can move into that direction.
01:52But right now...
01:53Capacity as Finnish President.
01:55How has been the visit so far?
01:56Yesterday you had meetings.
01:58How did the visit go so far?
01:59Oh, it's been wonderful.
02:01You know, doing a state visit is always a big endeavor, I think, for the hosting country.
02:06And I felt very warmly welcomed.
02:08I mean, spending three hours with Prime Minister Modi, then having the opportunity to speak at Raisina,
02:15and having a number of other meetings with your political leaders has been very given.
02:21And for me, it's also a big moment.
02:23The last time I was in India was 2013.
02:24And just to see the development with your own eyes in terms of infrastructure, in terms of roads, in terms
02:31of buildings.
02:32Always nice to be back in India.
02:34Sir, as we're discussing your visit here, so yesterday something important,
02:39and we use we are also signing, like the annual mobility and migration, and we use it on sustainability and
02:45other things.
02:45So how do you see the productivity of this visit and the annual sign?
02:48Yeah, really good.
02:50I mean, of course, you have to put things into perspective.
02:53You know, you have almost 1.5 billion people.
02:56Finland has 5.6 million people.
02:59The Indians who live in Finland, a little bit over 20,000, pretty much around the capital region.
03:06And most of them are engineers or tech specialists.
03:09And I think these MOUs will help us to have better exchanges when it comes to labor and mobility.
03:15But I also have a business delegation here of 20 big Finnish companies.
03:19And I'm sure that they'll be doing some good business with India.
03:23And I think it's going to be very much a two-way street.
03:25As we are in Mumbai, which is a victim of terrorism, and we are in Taj Hotel, which is a
03:30monument of 2611,
03:32which has seen the worst of one of its kind of attacks.
03:34So you have been at the memorial also of the deceased in this country.
03:40So how do you see terrorism as a menace for India, Finland, and the globe?
03:43Well, I think terrorism is always a menace, depends on which part of the world you are in.
03:49And, of course, actually ever since 9-11 in the U.S., the West started to focus on terrorism in
03:57a different kind of a way.
03:58Of course, there was internal terrorism in Europe.
04:00We saw that in Spain.
04:01We saw it actually in Northern Ireland and many places.
04:05But it's a menace everywhere.
04:07And when you allow extremists to roam around, terrorism usually breeds.
04:13And, of course, the attacks on the 26th of November 2008 were horrific.
04:20And it was a great honor for me to be able to pay my respects to the victims.
04:25Interestingly enough, before I came to India, my son suggested that I should watch Durandar.
04:32And I did.
04:33And, of course, that was one part of the narrative of that movie.
04:37And I'm, I guess, happy to fight against terrorism and look forward to the sequel on the 19th of March
04:43of the movie.
04:44You mentioned that the Global South, led by India, which shaped the next world.
04:49How do you see India's global influence over the next decade?
04:52And how does India view India's role as a key part of it in Europe when it comes to, you
04:57know, increasingly multiple other worlds?
04:59Yeah, well, first of all, I think the future is Indian.
05:03And I don't say this only because I'm Indian.
05:06I'm not trying to be overly diplomatic.
05:08I think demography, economy, and history speaks in your favor.
05:13World order changes ever so often.
05:15And they usually last two decades, as did after World War I, four decades during the Cold War, and three
05:22decades after the Cold War.
05:23And I think we're now seeing a transition of the world order.
05:27I would prefer it to be multilateral, in other words, leaning on international institutions, rules and norms, not multipolar, which
05:34for me is a lot of times about, you know, pure interests, deals and transactions.
05:40Reality is probably going to be somewhere in between.
05:43I am happy that the largest democracy in the world, India, is taking the lead.
05:50And my argument to my Western friends is that if we want to save multilateralism, we're going to have to
05:55give agency, in other words, power, a seat around the table to the countries that matter today.
06:02We don't live in a world of 1945, so the institutions should not reflect that either.
06:07It should affect the world of 2026.
06:10That's why I have called, for instance, for a seat, a permanent seat in the UN Security Council for India.
06:18I wrote a book about it called The Triangle of Power, where I really, really, really think that the Global
06:25South is going to decide where we're going to go, and India leads it.
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