Current affairs

Finland’s two-year chairmanship of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) for the period 2013–2015 had a fine ending when Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini handed over the chairmanship gavel to the next chairman, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, at the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council held in Oulu on 14–15 October.

Finland has assumed responsibility for the coordination of EU consular cooperation in Nepal starting Wednesday on 29 April. About 9,000 EU citizens are still in Nepal after the country was struck by an earthquake last weekend. Somewhat over a thousand of them have not been reached yet.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will participate in the Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting in Iqaluit, in the Canadian North, on 24 April. The meeting will approve action plans concerning the prevention of and response to Arctic marine oil pollution and the reduction of black carbon and methane emissions.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will attend the Nordic Foreign Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Iceland in Reykholt on 29–30 April.

Nordic Development Ministers agreed on a closer mutual cooperation in a meeting hosted by Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto, held in Helsinki. The Ministers aim at including the shared Nordic themes as part of the post-2015 global development goals. Ministers also participated in a debate about the future of the UN Millennium Development Goals, in the Hanasaari Swedish-Finnish Cultural Centre.

Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto has invited his Nordic colleagues to Helsinki on 13–14 March. The purpose of the meeting is to enhance Nordic cooperation on development policy issues. The participants in the meetings will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson (Iceland), Minister for Trade and Development Cooperation Mogens Jensen (Denmark), and State Secretaries Tanja Rasmusson (Sweden) and Hans Brattskar (Norway).

In Reykjavik on 12 February, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Nordic Counties published a joint statement, by which the countries commit themselves to strengthening their foreign and security policy cooperation, relating to crisis management; operation of international organisations; climate change; sustainable development; Arctic issues; and cyber security.

The joint meeting of Nordic Foreign and Defence Ministers will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 11–12 February. Finland’s representatives in the meeting will be Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Defence Minister Carl Haglund. The meeting will address topical foreign and security policy issues and Nordic security policy cooperation.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs annual rotation of Heads of Mission has been completed. Most of the 24 new Heads of Mission took up their positions on 1 September.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will participate in the meeting of the NB8 foreign ministers, hosted by Sweden, with other Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers in Visby on 2-3 September.