Foreign Ministry's press releases

The national Ahtisaari Days will be held on 15 November 2017. This year, the annual peace mediation event will be organised in Vaasa.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) will meet in Brussels on 13 November. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The topics on the agenda will include EU strategic communications and the EU-Africa relations.  In addition, the ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of defence will have a joint discussion on security and defence.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen will lead a Team Finland visit to Ghana and Nigeria from 13 to 17 November. He will be accompanied by representatives of over twenty companies and other stakeholders. The delegation members will represent companies operating in, for instance the cleantech, energy, education and health sectors. 

The EU Ministers of Trade will meet in Brussels on 10 November 2017. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will make a series of visits to Finnish schools. The aims of the visits are to enhance upper secondary school students’ knowledge of what foreign policy actions Finland is taking in order to prevent violent radicalisation, and to try to make the youth more critical towards radicalisation.

On Wednesday 8 November 2017, Finland was elected to the Executive Board of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The four-year term will start in November 2017. The election was conducted by the Member States of UNESCO. This was the most important UN candidacy for Finland this year. All the Nordic countries supported Finland’s candidacy.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will visit Egypt from 6 to 9 November 2017. The main objective of the visit is to strengthen discussion dealing with central foreign and security policy questions and to promote cooperation between the two countries, including commercial and economic cooperation.

Minister of State for External Affairs of India, M. J. Akbar, will visit Finland on 5–7 November 2017 on the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. Minister Akbar will be the most distinguished visitor from India in Finland this year, which marks Finland’s 100 years and India’s 70 years of independence.

The Finnish Consulate in São Paulo started operations on 1 September. From now on, the Consulate will be responsible for all citizen services, including passport and residence permit matters, which were formerly handled at the Embassy of Finland in Brazil.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will meet Norway’s newly elected Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreiden on 31 October and Denmark’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen on 1 November in connection with the Ordinary Session of the Nordic Council in Helsinki.