Press releases of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will host United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Finland on 2 June.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is a main partner of the World Village Festival taking place on 27–28 May in Suvilahti, Helsinki. This year’s festival theme is "Force for Change!".

Finland will host for the first time the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM) from 29 May to 8 June 2023. Around 400 leading experts on Antarctica will gather in Helsinki.

On 23 May 2023, the UN Committee against Torture issued a decision on a complaint against Finland concerning the return of an asylum seeker to the Russian Federation. In its decision, the Committee considers that the return of the complainant to the Russian Federation would constitute a violation of article 3 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which states that it is prohibited to expel, return or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

On 23 May, Finland was informed by Russia that Russia will terminate the bilateral agreement between Finland and Russia on additional military evaluation visits as of 1 June. Under the agreement, Russia may make one evaluation visit to Finland per calendar year, and reciprocally Finland may make one evaluation visit to Russia’s Leningrad Military District. This bilateral agreement, signed in 2000, complements the Vienna Document adopted by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the Foreign Affairs Council in its trade configuration in Brussels on Thursday 25 May. The trade ministers will discuss the EU’s trade relations with the United States and China and preparations for the next Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The ministers will also discuss the EU’s ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.

Making a rare appearance in Finland, the Finnish-Ecuadorian climate and environmental activist Helena Gualinga will deliver a keynote speech at the invitation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at the World Village Festival in Suvilahti, Helsinki on Saturday 27 May.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 22 May. Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will represent Finland at the meeting.

Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Boston in the United States from 19 to 21 May.

Combatting circumvention of the EU sanctions is a common mission of the EU Member States, especially of those who are at the forefront of sanctions implementation at the border with Russia. In order to facilitate co-operation further, the Border States, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and EFTA member state Norway, met in Helsinki on 15-17 May.

As of 15 May, the email addresses of the staff members at Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs and missions abroad will be, as a rule, in the format [email protected] The change is part of the overall harmonisation of the Government’s email addresses.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has aggravated world hunger and multiplied global humanitarian needs. For this reason, Finland’s humanitarian assistance focuses on life-saving food in 2023.

On 9 May 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a judgement on a case concerning the processing of personal data. The Court held that there has been no violation of Article 6 (right to a fair trial) or of Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Stockholm, Sweden, from 11 to 13 May. He will attend the Road to Vilnius seminar, the Gymnich Informal Meeting of EU Foreign Affairs Ministers and the EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum. Minister Haavisto will also have a number of bilateral meetings in Stockholm.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Baltic Offshore Wind Forum of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in Berlin, Germany, on 9 May. The Baltic Offshore Wind Forum is hosted by the German Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock and the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet on 4 May in Brussels in its development configuration.

Finland’s new government must promote global sustainable development and strengthen Finland’s positive handprint abroad. In this way, we can also safeguard Finland’s own security in the long term. This is the Development Policy Committee's key message to the government-formation negotiators in 2023.

Under-Secretary of State Kai Sauer and the foreign ministers of Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden visited Chisinau in Moldova and Odesa in Ukraine on 27–28 April.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs completes Finland’s relief effort in Sudan on Thursday 27 April.

During the state visit of the President of the Republic of Finland to the Republic of South Africa, a Letter of Intent on Co-Operation in Peace Mediation was signed on 25 April between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa.