President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev made a working visit to Finland on 20-21 July 2010 at the invitation of President of the Republic Tarja Halonen.

The two leaders examined cooperation within international and regional forums in the Baltic region, northern Europe in general, and in the Arctic - including bilateral trade and economic relations, cooperation in the energy and lumber industries, European security, and visa regime issues between Russia and the EU.

According to President Halonen, the talks were "very successful".

The talks also focused on the state of the Baltic Sea, and the presidents visited a research center on Seili Island in the Baltic Sea, near to the city of Turku.

The Centre of Environmental Research of the University of Turku carries out a range of scientific research into the Gulf of Finland marine territory, focusing primarily on aquatic ecology, long-term monitoring and simulation of the environmental situation in the Baltic Sea, and also historical, cultural, and archaeological research.

Medvedev said that a condition of the sea is worse than it used to be. "We should work on solving problems of the Baltic Sea together. We began discussing it yesterday," he added.

"I have always been tied to the Baltic Sea," Medvedev said. "I grew up on its shores," he added. Medvedev was born and raised in Russia's second city of St. Petersburg.

Trade between the countries increases

Bilateral cooperation priorities were also on the agenda. Finland is one of Russia's most important business partners.

Trade between the two countries has increased more than five-fold, and total direct Finnish investment in the Russian economy has increased eight-fold over the last decade.

Although 2009 saw bilateral trade drop to USD13.1 billion, from USD22.4 billion in 2008, Russia remained Finland's biggest trade partner.

Trade between the two countries has picked up again, posting an increase of more than 20 percent - USD5 billion - for the first quarter of 2010. Innovation and high technology are among the two countries' economic cooperation priorities.

Russia's GDP increased by 4.2 percent in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year. The rapid growth in Russia's economy so far this year is a strong indicator that the economical crisis is left behind. In 2009 Russia experienced its first recession, since the last crisis in 1998.