Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Japan on 1–5 September 2021. Minister Skinnari will attend the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games as a representative of Finnish state leaders and have meetings with Japanese ministers and representatives of Japanese companies.

Finland’s relief efforts in Afghanistan were complemented late on the night of Friday 27 August, when the employees of the company responsible for the security of Finnish Embassy personnel were successfully led inside the gates of Kabul Airport. The total number of these employees and their family members is 83 persons. Assisted by US troops, the group managed to get on a flight away from Kabul early this morning.

Today, on 27 August 2021, the President of the Republic approved the amendment to the Annex to the Decree of the President of the Republic on the Locations of Finland’s Diplomatic Missions and the Provision of Consular Services in the Foreign Service. The amendment will enter into force at the beginning of October.

Finland ended its relief efforts in Kabul as planned on Thursday 26 August. Both the Foreign Ministry’s relief team and the Defence Forces’ unit tasked with safeguarding the efforts have now left Afghanistan. We will continue to provide consular assistance through other means to the extent possible.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has recruited 20 new senior specialists in international business to work in 16 different countries. The intention is to increase Finnish exports in important export markets and, in particular, to help small- and medium-sized companies to work globally.

Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), will visit Finland from 30 to 31 August.

Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Helga Schmid will visit Helsinki on Friday 27 August at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. Schmid will also have discussions with President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö.

At an extraordinary meeting on 24 August, the Finnish Government decided to complement its earlier decisions and announced that Finland could admit to the country a maximum of 45 additional Afghan former employees of the Finnish Embassy in Kabul together with their families. Finland can also admit a new group of persons representing security sector employees together with their families, totalling a maximum of 83 persons.

On 25–27 August, the Europe Forum 2021 in Turku will gather Finnish opinion-makers and citizens to discuss Finland's role in Europe. The event will offer a wide range of discussions on the future of the EU and the position of Finland and the EU in the changing world order. During the Forum, the Ministers and public officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will contribute as speakers to events organised by other parties. In addition, on Friday 27 August the Foreign Ministry’s Europe Information will organise a discussion event on the future of an open Europe.

The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF will establish two innovation hubs in Finland. The hubs are the latest addition to the UN competence cluster built in Finland in recent years by UNOPS and UN Global Pulse.