Your Excellency, Speaker of Parliament Mr. & Mrs. Lipponen,
My dear friends, both old and new,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good evening!

I am very honored to have you all as my guest here at the Embassy this evening. First of all, I would like to extend, on behalf of my wife and my colleagues, the warm welcome to all of you, and the best wishes of festival on the occasion of the Chinese Lantern Festival.

During the past years, the Sino-Finnish friendly relationship has witnessed rapid progress by leaps and bounds, in the fields of political dialogue, economic and trade cooperation, and cultural and social exchanges, etc. (And it is worth mentioning that from last January to November, the bilateral trade volume amounted to 3 billion US dollars, registering a 24.1% increase over the same period of last year. Finland has become the No. 1 country in terms of China’s export to the Nordic countries, while China is the second biggest trade partner of Finland outside Europe.)

As an old friend of China as well as an active promoter of the Sino-Finnish cooperation, Your Excellency, you have made tremendous contribution to the bilateral relationship both as the Prime Minister before and the Speaker of Parliament now. And we are sure you will continue to give your valuable support to the further development of the mutual beneficial ties between our two countries. In this connection, please allow me to convey the best regards from Mr. Wu Bangguo, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and Mr. Zhu Rongji, former Prime Minister.

Hence, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Your Excellency and the friends here for your persistent efforts. And I cordially hope that we could continue to work together for a more in-depth and broader development of the Sino-Finnish friendly cooperation.

Finally, I would like to propose a toast:
To the development of the Sino-Finnish friendly relationship,
To our ever-lasting friendship,
And to the health of Your Excellency and all friends present here,
Kippis!
Kiitos!