Helsinki and Tallinn signed an agreement on cooperation between the cities on 29 May 2018. Today, 8 April 2022, the Mayor of Helsinki, Juhana Vartiainen, and the Mayor of Tallinn, Mihhail Kõlvart, signed an updated version of the agreement at the Helsinki City Hall.
With the updated cooperation agreement, Helsinki and Tallinn commit to developing the competitiveness of the twin-city region through cooperation in business and innovation, education, culture and tourism. In addition to improving the state of the Baltic Sea, more efforts will be made to tackle climate change and sustainable development issues. Promoting sustainable mobility of people and goods remains a major target.
The Mayors of Helsinki and Tallinn have met regularly a few times every year. In spring 2020, Mayor Kõlvart and the then Mayor of Helsinki, Jan Vapaavuori, met in Tallinn, after which meetings took place online due to the coronavirus situation. The meeting in Helsinki was also attended by the Estonian Ambassador to Finland, Sven Sakkov, the Finnish Ambassador to Estonia, Timo Kantola, and the Finnish rapporteur of the Visionary report on Estonia-Finland future cooperation(Link leads to external service), Member of Parliament, Anne-Mari
Virolainen.
Besides the updates to the cooperation agreement, the meeting discussed the cities’ preparedness with respect to the war in Ukraine. Ukraine was also discussed yesterday, 7 April 2022, in the online meeting of the mayors of the Nordic and Baltic capitals, the Nordic-Baltic Mayors’ Meeting.
“With the changed security situation in the Baltic Sea, it is increasingly important for the region’s capitals to work closely together. Helsinki and Tallinn already have a strong twin-city link, and although the coronavirus pandemic temporarily reduced tourism and employment across the Gulf of Finland, our economies and labour markets remain strongly interlinked. We will continue to take concrete steps to further strengthen these links,” says Mayor Juhana Vartiainen.