Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Munich Security Conference in Germany from 17 to 19 February.

Under-Secretary of State Pasi Hellman from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will attend the pledging conference of the Education Cannot Wait fund in Geneva 16 to 17 February. The fund supports education in humanitarian and prolonged crises. Finland will grant two million euros to the Education Cannot Wait fund this year. In 2020–2022, Finland supported the fund by a total of EUR 6 million.

Tunisia’s Minister of Communication Technologies, Dr Nizar Ben Neji, will visit Finland from 16 to 17 February.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will meet Greece’s Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Costas Fragkogiannis in Helsinki on 16 February.

On 13 February, the National Audit Office of Finland issued its audit report on Finnfund’s investments and risk management. Finnfund is an impact investment company that is almost entirely state-owned. It has a statutory duty to promote the social and economic development of developing countries.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs suspended the issuing of visas to Thai berry pickers in November 2022. The Ministry stated as grounds for the suspension certain ambiguities concerning wild-berry picking, including risk of trafficking in human beings, an ongoing police investigation in Finland and the possible amendments to the status of wild-berry pickers prepared by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will visit Finland from 13 to 14 February at the invitation of Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

The number of visas applied for at Finnish missions abroad are on the rise again after the pandemic years. However, the number of visas granted was only about one fifth of the number of visas granted in 2019, the year before the pandemic started.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has awarded EUR 445,000 in discretionary government grants to civil society organisations (CSOs) for their Europe information purposes. In this application round, grants were awarded to 22 CSOs and 24 projects.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is launching the new Climate Honours diploma to recognise and thank those involved in climate work. Finland’s network of missions around the world will grant Climate Honours to individuals and small organisations that are leading the way in combating climate change.