My opinion on who's wrong or who's right has nothing to do with the fact that we have to bring together people who are against each other, to transform antagonism into cooperation.
When the problems in Northern Ireland started, it was not a question of Protestantism or Catholicism, because the Catholic church was the only church at that time-it was a nationalist conflict.
If we go back in the history of different nations, violence and the use of force are part of their heritage. These are the traditions of mankind.
Without accepting the other person's thinking, you cannot further your own interest. You need the other's help to get results.
One of the biggest development issues in the world is the education of girls. In the United States and Europe, it has been accepted, but not in Africa and the developing countries.
When my first child was born in 1962, I wrote a letter to my grandfather telling him how happy I was but how concerned; concerned because there were so many visions which were not very good.
What we can do as individuals may not be very much on the global scale, but we have to start the change by living as we are teaching.
We have the tools, but we have to learn how to use them. That is my political philosophy.
We Finns represent a very transparent and open-minded way of reaching political decisions.
There are big issues, like the reform of the Security Council. These kinds of questions are something the President of the General Assembly must keep his eye on.
The Baltic Sea is becoming more and more polluted. Not everybody living near the shore of the Baltic Sea is protecting it. It is the water of life for countries like Finland and Sweden.
That is where consensus-building begins-with the idea that you have your own truth, but that the negotiator on the other side of the table has his own truth as well.
Peace enforcement is a much more difficult kind of operation than peacekeeping.
There are many challenges, there are many obstacles; let us try to change the obstacles to advantages.
Without rebuilding the confidence between parties, you will never succeed.