Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has published an information package on its website for those planning or considering travelling to Ukraine to serve as volunteer fighters and for their family and friends. The Ministry does not recommend or promote volunteering as a fighter. However, it assists Finnish citizens who are in Ukraine in accordance with the Consular Services Act whenever possible.

Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will visit London on 4 February and meet the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

Rapporteur Elina Björklund submitted her report on reforming the Team Finland network’s foreign functions to Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio and Minister of Economic Affairs Wille Rydman on 31 January 2025.

Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will attend a joint informal meeting of the EU’s competitiveness and trade ministers in Warsaw on 3–4 February 2025. The ministers will discuss ways in which industrial and trade policies can support the EU’s global competitiveness. The relations between the EU and the United States will also be on the meeting’s agenda. In addition, the ministers will discuss the integration of EU candidate countries into the single market as part of the Union’s value chains.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has sent out for comments a proposal for amending the Decree of the President of the Republic on the Locations of Finland’s Diplomatic Missions and the Provision of Consular Services in the Foreign Service, and the Annex thereto.

Slovenian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon will visit Finland on 30 January and meet Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will visit Latvia on 28 January. She will speak at the meeting of the heads of Latvia’s diplomatic missions and meet Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs Baiba Braže.

Finland holds the Chairpersonship of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 2025. OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen has appointed Christoph Späti as her Special Representative for the South Caucasus.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 27 January. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will represent Finland at the meeting.

Assistant Secretary-General Kamal Kishore, the Head of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), will visit Finland from 27 to 28 January 2025.