Ministry for Foreign Affairs celebrating its 90th anniversary

Press release 177/2008
26 May, 2008

This year, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is celebrating the 90th anniversary of its establishment. The main event of the spring, an anniversary seminar for invited guests, will be held at the assembly hall of Helsinki University on Tuesday 27 May. On the same date 90 years ago, the Senate of J.K. Paasikivi was formed, marking, at the same time, the appointment of the first Foreign Minister of Finland, Otto Stenroth. The predecessor of the Ministry, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Senate, was established one month later, on 28 June.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ anniversary seminar will be opened by Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, and President of the Republic Tarja Halonen will present her greetings to the celebrating Ministry. Professor Matti Klinge will examine the management of foreign affairs in Finland before independence, and in his lecture Doctor of Social Sciences, former Ambassador Klaus Törnudd will review the foreign ministers of Finland over the years, from Stenroth to Stubb.

Two veteran foreign ministers will also make an appearance during the programme. Current Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will shed light on his unique experience at the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on four decades, starting from the 1970s. Minister Pertti Paasio, on the other hand, will describe the dramatic changes during his term as the Foreign Minister under the heading "When the Walls Came Tumbling Down". A shortened version of Heikki Aho’s and Björn Soldan’s film "Finland Calling", made in the 1930s, will be shown as interim programme during the seminar.

A video will be made of the anniversary seminar to be featured later on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ website at formin.finland.fi

MFA 90 exhibition

A panel exhibition showing the history of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will also be published during the seminar. It will demonstrate the phases of the history of the Ministry from its establishment to present day with help of documents, photos, newspaper clips and quotations. Through samples of documentation the viewers will get a picture of the versatility of the operations of foreign service.

The exhibition panels will be published in PDF format on the Ministry’s website. The exhibition will be displayed in the library of the Finnish Parliament in June, in Sello shopping centre in Espoo in July and in Tikkurila library in August. Next autumn, the exhibition will tour the country in MFA 90 events organised by Europe Information and regional councils. The exhibition has been put together by Jyrki Paloposki, Head of Information Service at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, researcher Jussi Pekkarinen and exhibition architect Pekka Kouhia.

Event for the public in August

To commemorate its anniversary year, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise an event for the public on 28 August in a tent on the yard of the Ministry’s Merikasarmi main building in Helsinki. In the event, citizens will have a chance to meet ministers, Finland’s Ambassadors and Ministry official, and there will also be plenty of other programme in the tent. The programme of the event for the public will be published on the Ministry for Foreign Affairs’ website and announced in papers in August.

Additional information: Deputy Director General Erja Tikka, tel. +358 9 1605 5818