Foreign Minister Tuomioja will attend the Informal Meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers in Milan and will visit Iran and Georgia
Press release 183/2014
27 August 2014
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will attend the Informal Meeting of European Union Foreign Ministers, the so-called Gymnich Meeting, in Milan on 29 and 30 August. The Middle East peace process and the situation in Gaza will be discussed at the two-day meeting. The Ministers will also discuss the Eastern Neighbourhood, focusing on the situation in Ukraine. Also on the agenda are the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood and in particular the situation in Iraq, Syria and Libya. A Gymnich meeting is held twice a year in the country holding the Presidency of the Council at the time. The meeting takes its name from Gymnich castle in Germany, where the first such event was held in 1974.
From Italy Minister Tuomioja will continue his trip to Iran, where he will visit from 30 August to 1 September at the invitation of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. In addition to bilateral relations between Finland and Iran, the two Foreign Ministers will discuss, among others, topical foreign policy issues. During his visit, Minister Tuomioja will also meet with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, Speaker of the Parliament of Iran Ali Larijani, Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Ali Akbar Velayati, Senior Advisor on International Affairs to the Supreme Leader of Iran. The trip also includes a visit to the city of Shiraz in southwestern Iran.
In addition, Minister Tuomioja will visit Georgia from 1 to 2 September, where he will have talks with Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze and will meet government leaders and representatives of civil society. Aside from bilateral relations between Finland and Georgia, the topics of discussion are, among others, relations between the EU and Georgia, the international talks in Geneva regarding the Georgian conflicts and other current foreign policy issues, such as the situation in Ukraine.
Additional information: European correspondent Tarja Fernández, mobile tel. +358 40 590 9855 and Katja Kalamäki, Diplomatic Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, mobile tel. +358 40 590 7973 (Gymnich), Director General Jarno Syrjälä, mobile tel. +358 50 371 0107 (Iran) and Virpi Kukkasiemi-Leino, Desk Officer for the South Caucasus, tel. +358 295 351 081 (Georgia), [email protected].