Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Government discussed arms export matters and decided that in the current situation there are no foundations for new arms export authorisations to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. In its deliberations, the Government laid stress on the alarming humanitarian situation in Yemen, in particular.

Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Thomas Greminger will visit Finland on Friday 23 November and meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini.

Finland will take over the Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 21 November 2018.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) will meet in Brussels on 19 November. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The topics on the meeting agenda will be Ukraine, Central Asia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. At lunch, foreign ministers will discuss the situation in Yemen. The meeting will close with a joint session of foreign and defence ministers, whose topic of discussion will be security and defence.

Finnish authorities are continuing to investigate the GPS signal disruption that occurred during Nato’s Trident Juncture military drills. Finland considers Norway’s findings on the signal disruption to be reliable. It is not appropriate to release details on the matter to the public.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will meet US Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo in Washington DC on Thursday 15 November.

Georgia's Minister of Foreign Affairs David Zalkaliani will visit Finland on 11–12 November and meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini.

Finland will take part in HEX-ML 18 (PACE), the European Union's joint exercise to improve its decision- making, which will be held from 5 to 23 November 2018.

Finland’s Presidency of the Council of Europe will start on 21 November 2018. Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland will visit Finland on 8 November.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Anne-Mari Virolainen will make a Team Finland visit to Shanghai and Beijing on 4-9 November. She will be accompanied by a business delegation.