 So our final speaker has the difficult job of wrapping up the conversations that we've had today on security, on digitisation and on sustainability. So tasked with that difficult job I'd very much like to welcome Mr. Matty Antonin who's permanent State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland to give those closing marks for today's Ireland and the Nordic Baltic Age Conference working together for that secure, sustainable and digital Europe. Please welcome Matty Antonin. Thank you. Thank you very much, and it's thank you very much for for the Institute and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and all the Nordic Baltic embassies here for organizing this. I think this has been a very Topical and rich discussion on many things which are important for us. I Start with the Nordic region For Finland cooperation Nordic cooperation has been one of the key Factors in our history since the Second World War They are kind of achievements which have been very crucial for us Already in 1950s. We created a common Nordic labor market My family moved to Sweden from Northern Finland in early 60s And I worked myself in Copenhagen and Stockholm because of that possibility, and I think that was a great opportunity also to learn our neighbouring countries Then in the 1970s Our telecommunication ministers created a Nordic mobile telephone system Which was then based of the of the GSM and all that Mobile telephony we have now That was in a way a Nordic invention Which was built which gave the opportunity for Nordic companies like Ericsson and Nokia To to provide technologies both for the networks and for the consumers and then the rest is history We have also very strong Nordic institutions like the Nordic Investment Bank or the or nefco It's a daughter organization nefco, which is providing finance for Environmental and energy projects for example at the moment they are financing over hundred energy projects in Ukraine So this Nordic cooperation is much more than just you know the Nordic countries when Three Baltic States Estonia Latvia Lithuania became Again independent in early 90s. It was quite natural that the Nordic countries Nordic 5 You know wanted to do the utmost to integrate these countries into the European and global structures We said when we were negotiating our EU membership We said as a goal that the European Union must have a free trade agreement below with all of these countries and And that goal was achieved of course with them We already had a free trade agreement with all these three countries before but we also wanted the European Union To have a free trade agreement and we were really strongly supported their membership in the European Union The integration which has taken place since that has been phenomenal if you take our my country Finland as an example because of the 10 million people going back and forth between Helsinki and Tallinn that has made Helsinki the busiest passenger port in Europe overtaking Dover Just you know that's traffic of course, then there are also ships going to Sweden But the bulk of the traffic is between Helsinki and Tallinn as I said more than 10 million people going back and forth every year very close integration and then that continues to Latvia and Lithuania as well many Things were discussed, but I start with the hybrid and cyber They are threats which are common to all the countries of the region the Nordic Baltic eight, but also for Ireland and These are questions and threats where both border and distance don't really play a role in the way We think about traditional threats We need more resilience and It's very important to think these questions as well when we make our Governments more e-governments because if they are not safe if people if they're not perceived to be safe It's very difficult to promote these things About innovations I was yesterday an innovation lab here in the Dublin former harbour I You know just tell you because it was a kind of a nice idea They had a company making face recognition tech using face recognition technologies to assess The physical health of cows You know when they were eating these Cameras were looking at the cow and they were kind of making assessment whether this cow is feeling alright whether he or she whether she needs some kind of You know medication or whatever and I think that was a quite interesting when we are thinking about face recognitions we think about China and checking the people on the on the streets, but it can be done also in the in the with the animals When ambassador nerk talked about the digital services for the government, I think it's very important Because you know it can really make them cheaper and I think it's also important that that this analog Possibility is kept because we should not be pushing too much on the other hand those who who see that bondage is of Of these modern digital services should be provided with with them And they are there are quite a lot of things happening also between the Nordic countries Nordic Baltic countries and and especially between Finland and Estonia as was mentioned But I think here we all face a common problem lack of skilled people so this is quite a challenge for our education systems and Our immigration systems because without the foreign Immigrant experts. I think none of our countries can really be very successful here because I think the lack of Skill people is going to be the biggest challenge in in these questions And I think the question of remote areas is very important Ireland is a not only country in Europe which has remote areas I think the Nordic countries are quite long quite large and the question of how to how to Provide for jobs and opportunities in the remote areas is a very actual one Then I would like to say a few words about the Arctic region because that's a region where the climate change is felt more acute most acutely This year this summer The extent of the Arctic ice was more than two million square kilometers less than on average between 1980-2010 two million square kilometers and there was 75 percent less Volume in that ice cover. This is dramatic if something is dramatic sea absorbs 90 percent of the heat Coming from the sun sun Ice reflects 90 percent of that heat and everybody can understand when there's more open water There's much more absorption of the heat and that kind of reinforces this process This problem of global warming will not be solved in the Arctic But it's felt most acutely there and I think that's important to note and there are things happening there as well Because when there's less ice, there will be more Shipping there will be more exploration of natural resources and and that has to be taken into account And for example the thing our Icelandic colleague talked about Whether forecast and a meteorological work becomes even more important Just imagine Something would happen for a big cruise liner up in the in the north where the nearest helicopter is few thousand kilometers away And so on. I mean these questions are becoming more acute as well Sustainability and climate are important things Russia was mentioned here in several occasions Russia is also our neighbor. We have one thousand three hundred and some kilometers border with that country So it's quite near and it's felt to certain extent And one of those areas where we feel that neighbor is environment And actually we have been quite successful in the last 15 20 years of incorporation with the Russian cities Really to decrease the amount of pollution coming from the big cities of Russia to the Baltic Sea and Actually that has been the biggest change in the in the in the situation in the region as Most of the other countries have already taken care of that problem. So there's also a chance for a mutually beneficial cooperation with Russians in these questions as well Then the last thing I would like to Focus is this climate and energy discussion. We just had Finnish government as mentioned here has a very ambitious goal of by 2035 to be carbon neutral When we think of carbon neutrality, there are two factors we have to take into account first emissions Human activity will cause always some emissions. So in order to be carbon neutral You must have also sinks that which take the carbon out of the atmosphere We are lucky in the way that the we are the most forested developed country with 75% of the surface covered by a forest then you have 10% lakes and nothing not much more There are some people people living between those forests and lakes as well 5 million of them together But this is kind of a big plus for us because our forests are really a major carbon sink so I Think that the the goal of being a carbon neutral 35 it can be really done But it's gonna help by by these factors But becoming carbon neutral and cutting these carbon emissions really mean and require a major change in our Electricity and energy energy systems how we produce and consume Electricity a case of my country my country 40% of the electricity of the energy total energy comes from renewable sources Windmills as mentioned here Don't need any subsidies We can you know the companies are willing to invest in wind power without any any subsidy element But we have to look other sectors as well I think electricity we on the right track, but then we have to look heating space heating cooling Transport and land use and agriculture where we still have quite a quite a lot of challenges Here was mentioned the importance of grids and that's really a key question Nordic and Baltic countries. We have a common electricity market and we have increasingly also capability of of Selling and buying between the countries. We are new power lines are being built, but here we would really need a much faster planning processes because There's a plan to build the power line from northern Sweden to northern Finland Mostly on the There are no people living there and still the process will take seven years, which is all too long We need much much faster planning processes. We would like to see our neighboring country be fast as well Blasting which was not mentioned here, but which is important The whole concept of our economy should be around circular economy that That the concept of waste should be banned altogether You know raw materials just circulate in the economy and the idea that something is a waste and then it's dumped in the landfill Should be forgotten and I think here we have Quite a lot of opportunities and quite a lot of Expertise already in in the Nordic Baltic region. So I think they have a good possibilities of increasing Irish Irish and Nordic Baltic contacts. We are facing the same challenges and together we are stronger So thank you very much for this opportunity to wrap up this this very interesting and useful meeting. Thank you Thank you very much, Mr Matty Antonin and Agus Grimmie Lamaag of Galera Cordia as far as I can you Thank you very much for your participation your engagement in today's events I think there were some great discussions being had even more so out of the tea and coffee And I think you can continue those conversations now with lunch, which will be outside for you And this will in one shift on ten of us and law Agus Lonawali. So I hope you really enjoyed the day and safe home Thank you very much You