Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will be on an official visit to Vilnius on 28 October 2019. He will meet with the Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis and hold discussions with Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius.

The series will consist of four separate discussion events to be held in October and November. The themes will look into the role of diaspora communities in Finland in the reconstruction and maintenance of peace in their former home countries. Two of the events will focus on Somalia, one will discuss Afghanistan and one will deal with Iraq and Syria.

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.

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.