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The President of the Republic at the Festive Dinner at the Presidential Palace of Finland on November 20, 200120.11.2001
Mrs. President, Mr. Pentti Arajärvi,
Excellencies!
Dear friends!
Our hearts have been warmed by the cordial attention that has surrounded my first state visit to Finland. Besides political significance, our meetings will today and in the future be borne by the knowledge that we have sprung from the same roots and that our nations are sprouts of the same Finno-Ugrian tree.
The Finnish-Estonian bridge has remained steady for at least two and a half thousand years. From those times - as both Finnish and Estonian folklorists have pointed out - we have inherited the early Kalevala songs, the sources of our common myths and heroes. Väinämöinen is the one to introduce the "Kalevala", collected and recorded by Elias Lönnrot, and for writing the Estonian national epic "Kalevipoeg", Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald asks Vanemuine to lend him his harp. Kullervo was known as "kalevanpoika", and "Kalevipoeg" is the name of the Estonian national epic. Dr. August Annist, who has written bulky monographs both about "Kalevala" and "Kalevipoeg", had reasons to state that "Kalevala" is not only an epic of all Finland, but "the monumentum not only to ancient Finland and ancient Karelia, but also to the soul and culture of ancient Estonia; the aere perennius that has been brought down to both of our nations, unique for both its size and uniting qualities."
I did not start my address with emphasising this distant common past, which is also reflected in today, in order to confirm the affinity between two true brother nations. We can see it on every step anyway: in our languages, in our grassroots-level contacts, in our almost common economic space, in our everyday communication.
With this excursion to the past, I would also like to emphasise how important it is in today's chaotic world filled with fears to hold on to lasting values, to prevent our springs from becoming ingrown.
The "sustainability" of societies and states has become a fashionable word. But in conventional parlance, it has a much simpler equivalent - life force. Already Oskar Loorits, the Estonian folklorist and one of the ideologists of the Estonian spirit, admired the vitality of the Finns, known to you as suomalainen sisu, which has been shaped on the environmental plane throughout centuries not only by the forests, but by the "vastness of the land of thousands of lakes". Loorits believes this to be the source of the Finnish principality, harmony and peace, studiousness, composure, magnanimity and superiority to modern times, which, as Loorits says, makes the belief in the everlasting Finnish nature unshakeable.
We have witnessed these traits of character in Finland's behaviour as a society and a state; they are proved by Finland's high international authority, as well as social welfare and balance. All this inspires us to see Finland as our example in many areas.
Mrs. President! On your many visit to Estonia as a private individual, as a politician, as a Minister of Foreign Affairs and most recently, the President of the Republic of Finland, you have had the chance to follow Estonia's development, which has by several observers been compared to the re-emergence of a phoenix from ashes. We have indeed reasons to be proud of our people, who have been forced to start from scrap several times, and has accepted the challenges of modern times and borne all the burdens that the transition from one social order to another - or, figuratively speaking - our return to history - has placed on our shoulders.
And yet, Mrs. President, you and all other Finns sympathising with Estonia have also seen the face of the Estonia that has been unfairly caught between the wheels of development. As the Head of State of Estonia, I want to do everything in my power for Estonia to move into the future as a homogenous country, so that our visitors, including the Finns, our kin nation, could very soon see Southern Estonia just as prosperous and beautiful as they see Tallinn today.
Mrs. President! It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the Republic of Finland and the contribution you personally have made to make Estonia part of the structures of integrating Europe. Thanking you and all the Republic of Finland for this, we also know that this does not only proceed from the sense of kinship. This expresses our common wish to guarantee peace and security in the Baltic Sea region, and in the whole world. In the world that, despite our common or different origins or fates, is the one and only for all of us.
Mrs. President, allow me to wish you and your spouse happiness and success for the greater good of Finland!
Ladies and gentlemen!
Let us raise our glasses to the prosperity of the Republic of Finland and the people of Finland!
In Finnish:
Tasavallan presidentti Arnold Rüütel Suomen presidentin Tarja Halosen tarjoamalla juhlaillallisella 20. marraskuuta 2001
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