Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, from 24 to 26 January 2018.

The Educa Expo will be held in the Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki on 26-27 January 2018. At its stand, the Ministry's Europe Information and Unit for Development Communications will provide information on topical matters, and discussions will be arranged focusing on the EU, Finland's development cooperation, and Arctic questions.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) will meet in Brussels on 22 January. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The agenda of the year’s first FAC meeting covers the Middle East peace process, the situation in Libya, and the European Union’s relations with African, Caribbean and Pacific states in connection with the expiry of the present Cotonou Agreement in 2020.

A total of 827,475 Schengen visa applications to visit Finland were submitted in 2017, resulting in 816,796 issued visas. In 2017, Russians submitted 60% more visa applications to Finland than in 2016. .

In 2017, the Foreign Ministry received nearly 267,000 travel notifications, up by almost 96,000 on the previous year. This was more than ever before. The number of countries and regions visited was 198.

The new visual identity of the Foreign Service conveys the message of an organisation that operates in a stable manner in a turbulent world and that works to make the world a better place.

Titta Andersson-Bohren has been appointed to work as Special Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen, starting from 1 February.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will visit Madrid from 17 to 19 January.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) will have a joint stand at the Travel Fair 2018, to be held at the Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki from 18 to 21 January 2018. They can be visited at stand 6s61.

The chairs of the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation will meet in Moscow on 16 January. The Economic Commission will be co-chaired by Finland's Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Dmitri Kozak.