Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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924. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will report on his meeting with Finland’s Defence Minister; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30439/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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On 7 June 2022, I met with my Finnish Defence Counterpart, Mr. Antti Kaikkonen, in Helsinki. This meeting was one of a number of meetings which took place during my visit to Finland and Sweden in my capacity as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Discussions with Minister Kaikkonen were dominated by the situation in Ukraine and the continuing illegal war which is causing extraordinary human suffering. We also discussed the security situation in Europe more generally.

I took the opportunity to briefly outline the progress of the Report of the Commission on the Defence Forces and we also took time to discuss the grounds for Finland’s notification of interest to engage in talks on accession to NATO.

This was a valuable meeting at which it was agreed to maintain the ongoing policy of cooperation and contact between officials in order to meet the challenges we face together.

During my time in Helsinki, I also took the opportunity to visit the European Centre of excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats where the Director, Ms Teija Tiilikaine, provided an interesting oversight of its structure and function.