Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will meet Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis in Helsinki on 31 January.

Norway’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt will pay her first visit to Finland on Wednesday 26 January and have a meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

This is FINLAND Magazine 2022–2023, providing insights into Finland’s strengths and competence, has now been published in English. This year’s issue has a strong focus on the future. The key topics – digitalisation, curbing climate change, happiness, a good daily life, changes in the workplace and trust – are of great interest both in Finland and worldwide.

Core funding to international humanitarian organisations is a rapid and effective way to respond to sudden-onset natural disasters and protracted crises. Finland’s 27.5-million-euro funding will help UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC to operate in areas where people need help, and to plan their operations flexibly.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 24 January. The main items on the agenda are the security situation in Eastern Europe and the latest developments in Libya and Syria. The ministers will also discuss the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and the situation in Mali, Sudan and Kazakhstan. Later the same day, Foreign Minister Haavisto and Sweden’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Ann Linde will meet NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

In Finland’s first county elections, a total of 2,923 persons voted in advance at Finland’s missions abroad. The number of advance voters abroad was approximately eight per cent higher than in the 2021 municipal elections.

EU foreign affairs ministers will meet at an Informal Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Gymnich) on 13–14 January in Brest, France. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

Finland’s support will be targeted at providing assistance to victims of sexual and gender-based violence in Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and at implementing reparations awarded to former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) as ordered by the International Criminal Court.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has prepared a draft government proposal for amending the Aliens Act, which has now been sent out for comments. The comments are to be submitted by 18 January 2022.

Finland will strengthen its role in the fight against climate change through an investment in a new partnership launched by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The funding will be targeted at climate action in North Africa.