Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto in Chengdu, China. In 2017, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Finland and jointly decided with his host, President Sauli Niinisto to establish a new type of partnership for the future. In his comments in Chengdu, Wang Yi said, “Looking to the future, we should fully activate the potential of China-Finland practical cooperation. China is willing to advance the alignment of the Belt and Road Initiative with Finland’s development strategy, launch the mid-term evaluation of the Sino-Finnish Joint Work Plan, and carry out cooperation in emerging fields....”
Wang Yi also said that China supports the “Spirit of Helsinki” which is advocated by Finland. The latter refers to Finland’s role between East and West during the Cold War, and the signing of the “Helsinki Accords” in 1975 between Leonid Brezhnev and Gerald Ford, which helped reduce tensions between the two superpowers.
