India and Finland elevated their ties to a strategic partnership in digitalisation and sustainability on Thursday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that the two countries agree that no issue, whether in Ukraine or in West Asia, can be resolved through military conflict.
Speaking after bilateral talks with Finland’s President Alexander Stubb at New Delhi’s Hyderabad House, the PM said: “India and Finland both believe in the rule of law, dialogue, and diplomacy. We are in agreement that no issue can be resolved solely through military conflict”. “Whether in Ukraine or in West Asia, we will continue to support every effort aimed at the early end of conflict and the restoration of peace,” the PM said.
Modi’s remarks on the conflict in West Asia were his first since the US sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday.
In a related development, later in the day, India formally expressed its condolence on the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri visited the Iranian Embassy in the national capital where he conveyed to Iranian Ambassador to New Delhi, Mohammad Fathali, India’s message and signed the condolence book on behalf of the Government of India.
Separately, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a phone conversation with his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi. Khamenei was killed in an Israel-US strike on February 28. India did not issue a statement on Khamenei’s killing. Opposition parties, including the Congress and Left parties, have criticised the government for not reacting to Khamenei's death.
The Opposition has also criticised the government’s “silence” on a US submarine sinking the Iranian naval ship, especially since, as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said, the Iranian ship was a “guest of India” and was returning unarmed from the International Flee Review 2026 that India hosted.
The Bharatiya Janata Party slammed the Congress for wanting India to “blindly side with Iran”, and that the country’s foreign policy must be guided by national interest and the safety of its citizens, not by compulsions of the Congress’ “outdated ideological reflexes”.
In his remarks, the Finnish President, who is on a four-day visit to India, congratulated the PM for the change and “economic miracle” that he has seen in India, which he last visited in 2013. He described India as “a key strategic partner of Europe and lauded Modi’s foreign policy”.
On Modi government’s foreign policy, Stubb said is “that you are never under illusion, you have always based your foreign policy on a pragmatic and realistic worldview”. “You have showed the rest of the world that strategic caution and safeguarding autonomy means a lot all the while championing multilateralism and global cooperation,” Stubb said.
India and Finland signed three agreements, including facilitating the migration and mobility of Indian students and workers to Finland. The two sides listed eight more announcements, which included committing to double the present bilateral trade between India and Finland by 2030 by capitalising on the recently concluded negotiations for the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Stubb, who later inaugurated the annual Raisina Dialogue and its keynote speaker, pointed out that the last visit by a Finnish President to India was in 1996, but in the past few weeks, the Finnish PM (for the AI Summit) and now him have visited India. Stubb is one of few world leaders that US President Donald Trump engages with, and the two played golf together in Florida last year, and are known to maintain regular contact.
The Finnish President said the two sides discussed the conflict in West Asia and Russia’s “war of aggression” against Ukraine. “We agreed that ending the war is in everyone’s interests. A lasting peace can only be one that respects the principles of the United Nations,” he said.
At the joint media briefing, the PM said that “today the world is passing through a phase of instability and uncertainty. From Ukraine to West Asia, several parts of the world continue to face situations of conflict.” He added that in such a global environment, India and Europe, two major diplomatic powers of the world, are entering a golden phase in their relationship.
Several European leaders have visited India in recent months. The PM said the India-EU FTA will further strengthen trade, investment, and technology cooperation between India and Finland. He said Nokia mobile phones and telecom networks have connected millions of people across India, and the world’s highest railway bridge over the Chenab River as also the world’s largest bamboo-to-bioethanol refinery in Numaligarh have been constructed with Finnish help.
The PM said Stubb’s visit will impart new energy to bilateral cooperation across several high-technology sectors, from Artificial Intelligence to 6G telecommunications, and from clean energy to quantum computing. He said Finland is increasingly becoming a preferred destination for Indian students and talent, and also highlighted the agreement to increase cooperation in teacher training, school-to-school partnerships, and research on the future of education.
In 2022, India’s total trade (goods and services) with Finland was € 3.0 billion and was in India’s favour. There were 21,359 (December 2022) persons of Indian origin with 8245 NRIs and 13,114 OCIs. Currently, about 1200 Indian students are pursuing higher education in Finland.
 "India-Finland talks show peace push; foreign secretary meets Iran envoy")
