Helsinki, 1st October 2022
This year we innovated by organising our 22nd Multilateral on Saturday 1 October 2022 in the form of a webinar in English on the war in Ukraine.
It lasted an hour and a half and was the responsibility of the Finns. It was the result of a proposal from me, given the imponderables, at a time when freedom of movement has been re-established in Europe. The experiment was a success, despite the limited number of participants (22), partly due to a lack of information.
There were therefore two welcome speeches, the first from Ilari RANTAKARI of ME Finland and Jean-Paul DOGUET of Eurocapitales Paris. We then heard three successive contributions, from Jacques FAURE, Honorary Ambassador in Kiev, on the theme: "The Russian war in Ukraine: what new European order?", then from Markku KIVINEN, Emeritus Professor at the Aleksanteri Institute, on the question "The Russian framework for foreign and security policy" and Esapekka VEHKAOJA, Director of the Finnish Military Intelligence Agency, who spoke on the question "The war in Ukraine - a military perspective to put an end to aggression".
The webinar proved to be a success and we decided to repeat the experience, as it is a very inexpensive formula that allows us to extend the number of our participants and speakers, who would not otherwise come to a meeting. Of course, this in no way replaces a 'real' multilateral meeting, which is why we have decided to hold both events.
The Eurocapitales webinar would be a new type of event in our activities, devoted to a topical issue, whereas the themes addressed in the multilateral will be more structural, less dependent on the event.
