Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dear fellow parliamentarians, ladies and gentlemen, we are very happy to be here. Canada is becoming a much more important country to us than before because of certain developments that have taken place in America in recent years. I have a strange feeli

Foreign Affairs committee  I certainly can't quote any figures.

Foreign Affairs committee  If the climate changes and it changes completely, for instance, Finland's nature, it would mean that in the southern and the northern parts the trees would be growing faster and that would increase forest production for us. That is one positive possibility. However, ecologically,

Foreign Affairs committee  We are already discussing whether we should develop railway connections, so that ships could deliver their goods to be transported by rail, but it is only under discussion in Finland.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think the security development certainly must be a result of other developments than this Arctic issue. Certainly that also will have some aspects. For instance, if there is more trade, more transport and so forth, there may also be complications. That might create some difficu

Foreign Affairs committee  It's not an accident that we have one of the strongest armies in western Europe, if that is enough of an answer.

Foreign Affairs committee  My colleagues will, certainly. There are more details about this.

Foreign Affairs committee  I would like to add to this that these last two days' events in Ukraine, in the Azov sea, haven't made us more comfortable.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just—

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's important that we also do exercises. We are having a lot of exercises with NATO troops. I can tell you that the number of exercises where we are participating—mainly NATO, Nordic and the Baltic Sea area exercises—is about 40 per year, if not more. It's more than some

Foreign Affairs committee  As you probably know, we have established in Helsinki the hybrid centre, in which Canada is also now participating. You are also participating, and the idea is to reveal all the methods that are being used against us, such as false information and efforts to influence our industr

Foreign Affairs committee  Exactly, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  One point is this: We are not alone in this position. You know that Sweden is also in the same situation as we are. We think there is a kind of balance there now. If Sweden or Finland joined alone, that would break the balance there, the very delicate balance. We have many times

Foreign Affairs committee  I have one point. The Lisbon treaty of the EU is even tougher than article 5 of NATO, because it says that if one is being attacked, we all must assist and defend with all possible means the one who has been attacked. Of course, we have no troops, but neither has NATO any troops.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's a value in itself that Russia is in the Arctic Council, because think about the Arctic Council if Russia wouldn't be there. Think about their huge area and coastline. We think that it's a good thing that they are there and we must try to make compromises and common p