Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States visits Finland

Press release 4/2009
13 January, 2009

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb met on 12 January with Secretary General Luis Fernando Andrade Falla of the Association of Caribbean States in Helsinki. The two discussed possibilities to increase and deepen relations between Finland and the Caribbean states. There are promising possibilities for cooperation with the members of the Association of Caribbean States, especially in UN policy and, for instance, in connection with climate change and reforestation projects.

The Association of Caribbean States has 25 Members States, and the region has a total population of nearly 240 million people. The members of the Association are the island nations of the Caribbean Sea and the Central and South American countries bordering on the Caribbean Sea. Finland is an Observer member. In the region Finland conducts, for example, cooperation in meteorology with a view to developing weather observations and promoting renewable energy sources.

Secretary General Andrade, who will be in Finland from 11 to 13 January, will visit the Baltic Sea Commission and the Finnish Meteorological Institute and will also meet with business representatives.

Additional information: Head of Unit Juha Virtanen, tel. +358 9 1605 6360 and Counsellor Kimmo Pulkkinen, mobile tel. +358 40 578 4344, Unit for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Tanja Jääskeläinen, Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, tel. +358 9 1605 5005