Press releases of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Finland will participate in the EU Integrated Resolve (EU IR 20) Exercise, which will be held between 21 September and 4 December 2020.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Monday 21 September. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main topics on the agenda will be Belarus, the relationship between the EU and the African Union, and Libya.

The European Court of Human Rights issued a judgement concerning Finland on 17 September 2020, finding a violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Berlin on 20-22 September 2020.

On 17 September 2020, 17 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) decided to commission a report on serious human rights violations related to the presidential election in Belarus. Finland is one of the countries that took part in the decision.

The budget proposal focuses on improvements to the ability of Finland’s missions abroad to operate effec-tively; participation in international crisis management, conflict prevention and mediation; measures to en-sure an appropriate level of development finance; and post-crisis measures following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic and post-crisis management greatly highlight the need for international cooperation. Post-pandemic recovery funding, such as the EU’s recovery package, will also bring new opportunities for commercial and economic cooperation.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most events of the high-level week and the 75th anniversary session of the United Nations General Assembly will be held virtually this year. President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will speak at the 75th UN General Assembly

On 17 September 2020, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a meeting of the Nordic Foreign Ministers via video conference.

The 2020 Afghanistan Conference scheduled for 23-24 November 2020 in Geneva is a milestone event in Afghanistan’s journey to peace, prosperity and self-reliance.

Minister for Nordic Cooperation Thomas Blomqvist will attend a meeting of Ministers for Nordic Cooperation on Thursday 10 September 2020. Due to the COVID-19 situation, the meeting will be held as a video conference.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a meeting of Nordic and Baltic Foreign Ministers, to be held in the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) cooperation format in Tallinn on 8–9 September 2020.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will hold an online consultation on the preparation of the Government new Human Rights Report on Thursday 10 September at 10.00–12.30. This online consultation will discuss matters raised on the draft document during the consultation process.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Vilnius on 29 August and Tallinn on 30 August.

On 27 and 28 August, EU foreign affairs ministers will hold an informal meeting (Gymnich), hosted by the German Presidency of the Council of the EU. Foreign ministers will discuss the EU-Russia relations, Turkey, and the situation in Belarus. They will also have a discussion on the geopolitical impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the EU's strategic response to them.

In addition to representing a challenge for Finland’s wellbeing, the coronavirus has also hit export companies, scrapping plans altogether or forcing companies to rethink their plans. How are companies adapting to the new situation? How does the pandemic affect export promotion?

In the past ten years, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has consistently strengthened the position of mediation at international and national levels. In accordance with the Government Programme, mediation is one of the most important priorities in Finland’s foreign policy. To boost the implementation of the objective, Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto has decided to set up a Centre for Mediation under the administration of the Ministry’s Political Department.

The Heads of Finnish Missions abroad will convene for their annual meeting on 24-26 August. Exceptionally, the meeting will be held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. The meeting will discuss how the world looks like during and after the coronavirus and how Finland is able to succeed in the future. The participants will approach the theme by assessing Finland’s foreign and security policy environment, for example.

On World Humanitarian Day 19 August, the world pays attention to global humanitarian needs and honours the people who, in the midst of conflicts and natural disasters, support those in need. This year, the theme of the day is ‘real life heroes’. The majority of aid workers are local people who, in difficult and often dangerous circumstances, carry out humanitarian work to alleviate the distress of others.

EU foreign affairs ministers will hold an informal video conference on 14 August. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main topics of discussion will be the situation in the eastern Mediterranean and Belarus. The situation in Lebanon and Venezuela will also be addressed.

The budget proposal of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs covering the administrative sector for which it is responsible totals EUR 1.3 billion. It is EUR 29 million more than in the 2020 budget. Of the appropriations under the main expenditure title, the Foreign Service accounts for 21%, crisis management 6%, international development cooperation 66% and other expenditure 7%.