Current affairs

Ambassador Arto Haapea will deliver a public lecture in Wellington hosted by the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and Victoria University of Wellington Centre for Strategic Studies.

Ambassador Arto Haapea will deliver a public lecture in Perth hosted by The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the UWA Defence and Security Institute on Thursday 26 September.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has sent out for comments a proposal for a new Decree of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Fees for Services Produced by the Foreign Service in 2025. It is proposed that several of the Foreign Ministry's services which are currently provided free of charge should be made chargeable.

The high-level meetings of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 79) will start in New York on 24 September. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will attend ministerial events in New York and have bilateral meetings with their counterparts and with representatives of the UN.

Ambassador Arto Haapea will trave to Perth for an official state visit between 23 – 27 September 2024.

The reform of the Foreign Service of Finland took a step forward on 1 August, when the reorganisation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the updated rules of procedure took effect. The purpose of the organisational reform is to lay a suitable foundation for the Ministry’s work in the current international situation and in terms of Finland’s foreign policy change. At the same time, cooperation across organisational boundaries has become even more important.

The Embassy of Finland in Canberra will conduct a passport mission to Brisbane in September 2024. Passport missions by the Embassy of Finland enable citizens of Finland to apply for a Finnish passport in the city that the mission takes place. This means a trip to Canberra can be avoided. Services provided during a passport mission are restricted to passport and identity card applications.

The Government approved the proposal for the Report on International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation on 11 July 2024. The report complements the Report on Foreign and Security Policy with more detailed trade and development policy measures.

Based on predetermined criteria, the contract was awarded to VF Worldwide Holdings Ltd, which is the current provider of the outsourced application services to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

On 27 June 2024, Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio appointed Elina Björklund (M.Sc., Economics), Chairperson of the Board of Reima Group, to serve as the rapporteur preparing the reform of the Team Finland network of business services abroad to integrate the foreign functions of Business Finland with the Foreign Service.