In April 2017, President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Finland on occasion of the centenary of Finland's independence. The visit came 22 years after the last time a Chinese president visited Finland. The two heads of state jointly announced the establishment of future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership between China and Finland.

In January 2019, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto paid a visit to China. The two countries jointly launched the 2019"China-Finland Year of Winter Sports". This is the first time China and a foreign country jointly held thematic year of winter sports.

Looking back, it's not quite hard to find that Finland has always been at the forefront of western countries in establishing diplomatic ties and developing cooperation with China. Sino-Finnish relationship has stood the test of time and changes in international circumstances. Finland was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. Finland was also one of the few countries which supported China's restoration of the legitimate seat in UN in the early 1970s.

In recent years, under the guidance of the heads of state diplomacy, the two countries have witnessed frequent high-level exchanges and enhanced mutual political trust. At the beginning of last year, the speaker of the Finnish Parliament had led a joint visit of speakers from eight Nordic and Baltic countries to China. Cabinet members from Finland, including the prime minister, visit China or attend international conferences in China. Each year, nearly 40 Chinese provincial and ministerial delegations from political parties, governments, the National People's Congress, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the judiciary and military departments visit Finland to exchange governance experience. Such visits have, in fact, become the "new normal".

In 1953, Finland has signed intergovernmental trade agreement with Chinese government, making Finland the first Western country to sign such agreement with the New China. In the past few decades, large number of Finnish companies, such as Nokia, have achieved great success in China. Many Chinese people, myself included, have their first mobile phone from Nokia.

As China has grown into the world's second-largest economy, two countries have expanded cooperation in the fields of trade and investment. In fact, China has already been Finland's fourth-largest trading partner in the world as well as the largest in Asia for 16 consecutive years. China's investment in Finland has grown rapidly in recent years, and mutual investment between the two sides has been basically at equal level. At present, there are nine direct flights between China and Finland operated by three airlines, and two lines of China Railway Express have been extended to Finland.

Finland was also the first place where the five-starred red flag was raised at the Olympic Games. In 1952, the New China sent its first ever delegation to the Helsinki Olympic Games. At the beginning of 2018, a pair of Chinese giant pandas, named" Hua Bao" and" Jin Baobao", came to Finland. Finland became the first Nordic country to welcome Chinese giant pandas. I often say that, Finland is among the few countries to have three Chinese ambassadors.

Traditional Chinese cultural activities represented by the" Happy Chinese New Year - Chinese Temple Fair in Helsinki" have attracted wide attention and participation in Finland, while the number of overnight visitors from China to Finland has increased dramatically. Finland's unique educational philosophy and lifestyle are particularly popular among the Chinese people, especially the young. The comic book Finnish Nightmare has become a hit in China, and Jingfen (spiritually Finnish) becoming buzzword on the internet.

China and Finland share common similarities in diplomatic philosophy. In the context of anti-globalization, unilateralism and trade protectionism, both countries firmly stand for multilateralism, economic globalization and free trade. The two sides hold similar positions on sustainable development, climate change, Arctic affairs and other issues. There are many areas of cooperation China and Finland can focus on:

First, connectivity. Although Finland is a Nordic country, it is one of the nearest path from China to Europe. Therefore, cooperation on connectivity under the Belt and Road Initiative could be fruitful. China and Finland also face broad prospects for cooperation in the Arctic shipping-lane. In the future, we can even foresee the idea of" Ice Silk Road" and" Digital Silk Road".

Second, trade and investment. The successful cases of Chinese investment in Finland in recent years, such as Tencent's acquisition of majority shares of Finnish game company Supercell and Anta's acquisition of famous sports company Amer Sports, provided excellent practice.

Finland has advantages in high-tech fields of clean technology, bio-economy and circular economy. Excellent products, services and technologies from such areas are exactly what China needs. The China International Import Expo with other platforms in return offer a huge market for Finnish companies. There are also great potentials for Sino-Finnish cooperation in tripartite financial market, as Finland is the founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Third, innovation cooperation. China overtook Japan in the Global Innovation Index 2019 to rank 14, making it the only middle-income economy in the top 20. Innovation is one of Finland's unique features, especially in the information and communication industry, where Finland has accumulated talent, experience and technological advantages. Sino-Finnish cooperation in 5G, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge scientific and technological fields can make new contributions to the growth of world economy.

This year is "China-Finland Year of Winter Sports". The two sides will carry out nearly 70 activities, including cooperation in the fields of personnel training, equipment manufacturing, site construction, and event organization. In October, Finland will participate in the International Winter Sports Expo in Beijing as the guest of honor. In December, the closing ceremony of the" China-Finland Year of Winter Sports" will be held in Rovaniemi, a tourist resort in northern Finland.

These series of activities will provide a great platform for enterprises and sports institutions related to ice and snow sports in China and Finland to promote exchanges and cooperation. It is believed that this will help China achieve the goal of"300 million people joining the ice and snow sports" and help China host the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Finland, a member of the European Union, has just taken over the EU's rotating presidency since July. We believe that Finland will play a positive role during its rotating presidency to create favorable conditions and lay a solid foundation for the next EU institutions to cooperate with China and participate in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Well begun is half done. Next year we will usher in the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Finland. Joint efforts will ensure the future of Sino-Finnish partnership to be even better.

The author is Chinese ambassador to Finland.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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