Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Kai Mykkänen will visit Paris on 24–25 October. Minister Mykkänen will meet Minister of State Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, who is responsible for trade and development matters. The Ministers will discuss trade policy questions, such as the allocation of competences for concluding trade agreements in the EU and monitoring of investments. Additionally, the Ministers will exchange views on trade and sustainable development, and about sexual and reproductive heal

Finland has upgraded diplomatic representation in Colombia. The Liaison Office of Finland placed in the capital of Colombia Bogotá since 2013 has been upgraded to an Embassy, to be headed by Ambassador Jarmo Kuuttila. Prime Minister Juha Sipilä inaugurates the Embassy on 24 October 2017 during his visit to Colombia.

Finland nominates Astrid Thors as candidate for the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä will lead a Team Finland trade mission to Colombia on 23–25 October and visit Peru and Bolivia on 25–27 October. The Prime Minister’s visit will include meetings with the countries’ leadership. In Colombia, he will open the Embassy of Finland in Bogotá, marking at the same time the centenary of Finland’s independence.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Linas Linkevičius, will visit Finland on 23–24 October. He will meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini on 23 October in Helsinki.

The 16th ministerial meeting of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) will be organised in Arkhangelsk, Russia, on 18–19 October. 

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Luxembourg on 16 October. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The topics on the Council’s agenda will be Turkey, Iran, North Korea, and EU policy on human rights.

Finland and the IFC (International Finance Corporation), which is a member of the World Bank Group, will together set up a joint climate fund that will support renewable and clean energy solutions and other climate projects in developing countries.

In 2016, the Foreign Ministry’s diplomatic and consular missions abroad handled about 55,000 requests for consular service and consular assistance.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Johanna Sumuvuori to the post of Press Officer at the Embassy of Finland in London as of 1 December 2017. The post will be a fixed-term appointment ending on 31 July 2020.