Foreign minister Tuomioja to visit India, Afghanistan and Pakistan

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will attend the meeting of the EU general affairs council on Monday 15 April, and later in the day will travel to New Delhi.

On Tuesday, Tuomioja will meet with Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh to discuss Finnish-Indian bilateral relations, regional issues and international action to combat terrorism.

On Wednesday, Tuomioja will meet South Asian experts on the World Trade Organization and will address a meeting on globalization organized by non-governmental organizations.

The next day, 18 April, the Finnish foreign minister will visit the Afghan capital Kabul, where he will meet with the leader of the interim administration Hamid Karzai, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Finance Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala. Tuomioja will also meet the UN secretary general’s special representative to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahim, visit members of the 46-strong detachment of Finnish members of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and meet with Finnish aid workers.

Finland is providing EUR 10 million to Afghanistan this year and is helping support the interim government with EUR 1.5 million through the UN. In future it will focus aid on improving the situation of women and girls in the country and on tackling the drug problem. The Finnish ISAF detachment runs small-scale projects aimed at improving the situation of the civilian population in Kabul. Finnish humanitarian assistance supports efforts such as mine clearing.

On Friday 19 April, Mr Tuomioja will visit Islamabad. There he will have talks with Pakistan’s foreign minister Abdul Sarrar on bilateral and regional issues as well as Pakistan’s efforts to move from military government towards democracy.

Tuomioja will return to Finland in the early hours of Saturday 20 April.