Finnish PM: Russia-EU trade to double after EU enlargement

Trade between Russia and the European Union will grow by 50 percent as a result of the EU's enlargement, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said.

He told Russian journalists shortly before the Russian premier's visit to Finland scheduled for November 17-18 that "the role of Russia for the EU after its enlargement will be still more tangible since almost half of the Russian foreign trade will fall on EU countries." Touching upon the Russian-Finnish relations, Matti Vanhanen pointed out that the meetings between the two countries' leaders and leading politicians are traditional and have been contributing to the development of their cooperation for many years.

The Finnish prime minister emphasized that the Finnish firms had already invested in Russia about 1.5 billion euros. This means that they trust in Russia and hope that bilateral cooperation has good prospects. "Otherwise, they would not have invested," he stressed.