Press releases of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs participates in the Helsinki Book Fair with a varied, fact-based programme. Also present at the fair will be Minister of Nordic Cooperation Thomas Blomqvist and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. A new, updated version of Europe Information’s book on basic facts about the EU (EU-perusteos / EU basfakte) will be published at the fair.

During the autumn of 2019, the Migration Institute of Finland and the Finnish Immigration Service will organise a public lecture series under the AUDA project (Voluntary Return to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia). The AUDA project is implemented in cooperation between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Finnish Immigration Service and the Crisis Management Centre (CMC).

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Berlin on Thursday 17 October 2019 to attend the 20th anniversary of the Nordic Embassies complex. The event will be attended by the Foreign Ministers of the five Nordic countries and Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the 2019 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC on 17–19 October.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Ayman Safadi will visit Finland on Friday 18 October and meet President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) will meet in Luxembourg on 14 October. Finland will be represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main theme of the discussions will be the latest developments in the situation in Syria. The meeting will be followed by an informal lunch with Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko.

In the Government’s budget proposal, EUR 1.256 billion is proposed for the Foreign Ministry’s main title of expenditure. This is EUR 120 million more than was allocated in the Budget for 2019. The growth is mainly due to appropriation increases in line with the Government Programme.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Brussels on 9 October. The Minister will speak at a seminar entitled Europe and Africa: Neighbours with a shared future – Investing in people, which is organised by Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union together with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Finnish Government will grant Finnfund a loan of EUR 210 million for further investment in climate projects in developing countries and for strengthening the position of women and girls. Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari made the decision about the loan, which is part of the Ministry’s development policy investments.

The Council reaffirmed its commitment to EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights by adopting, on October 7, supplementary negotiating directives aiming at thee swift resumption of negotiations with the Council of Europe.

The XVII Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) Foreign Ministers' session will be held on 3 October in Umeå, Sweden. At the meeting, the two-year chairmanship of BEAC will be handed over from Sweden to Norway.

On 3 October, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Umeå, Sweden, to attend the EU Arctic Forum. The forum is co-organised by the European Commission and Sweden.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania on 30 September–2 October. During the visit, Minister Haavisto will meet his counterparts and other political leaders and representatives of CSOs.

On 26 September, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) gave its judgment concerning Finland in the case of the return of an asylum seeker to Iraq.

Minister Ville Skinnari will chair an informal lunch meeting of EU trade ministers in Brussels on 1 October and attend the Trade for Her conference on 30 September.

Prime Minister Antti Rinne has appointed a Management Group for Finland Promotion Board for a term from 1 September 2019 to 31 December 2023.

The Foreign Ministry’s country branding campaign, entitled Capital of Metal, won a Campaign of the Year prize at the global Digital Communication Awards competition in Berlin on 20 September 2019. The Campaign of the Year prize was awarded in the associations and institutions category. The Ministry’s Finland emoji collection won a prize at the competition in 2016.

In summer 2019, the Finnish Embassy in Moscow and the Finnish Consulate General in St Petersburg commissioned a survey examining what kind of perceptions Russian people have of Finland. The survey was conducted by Levada Market Research, and it was responded by a total of 1,600 people from different parts of Russia. This was the second time that the survey was carried out – the first one was conducted in summer 2017. This year, residents of St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast responded to a separate survey. 

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 74) in New York.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the high-level week of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York from 23 to 27 September. During the week, the UN Secretary-General will convene a Climate Summit on 23 September and the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development will hold a meeting from 24 to 25 September.