Foreign Ministry's press releases

H.E. Smail Chergui, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, will visit Finland on 26–27 April. Commissioner Chergui will have meetings with, for example, Foreign Minister Timo Soini and the Foreign Minister’s Special Representative Pekka Haavisto, President Martti Ahtisaari and Minister Elisabeth Rehn.

European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström will visit Finland on Friday, 22 April 2016. Commissioner Malmström and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka will hold bilateral discussions.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will visit Rome and hold bilateral discussions with the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Paolo Gentiloni on Friday, 22 April.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka has been invited to membership of the World Bank Advisory Council on Gender and Development. She is the first Finnish member serving in this high-level Advisory Council, which fosters equality and development.

The Ministers for Nordic Cooperation will convene for an extraordinary meeting in Oslo on 19 April. The meeting will be held in connection with the Nordic Council's Theme Session and focus on the migration and refugee crisis and enhanced border controls cooperation. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister of Transport and Communications Anne Berner who also serves as Minister for Nordic Cooperation.

Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Pierre Krähenbühl will visit Finland on 19 April to meet with Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka. The meeting will focus on the situation of the Palestine refugees in both the Palestinian territories and in Syria and its neighbouring countries.

The acute refugee crisis is diverting attention from long-term development cooperation to the growing humanitarian needs. This is not sustainable as a policy. Adequate resources are needed for both purposes, says the Development Policy Committee in its statement.

A state memorial ceremony will be organised in Bonn on 17 April to commemorate long-term Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Hans-Dietrich Genscher. Genscher died on 31 March at the age of 89. Finland will be represented at the memorial ceremony by former Foreign Minister Paavo Väyrynen.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will convene in Luxembourg on 18 April. Finland's representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini. The agenda highlighs include the external dimensions of migration, the EU Regional Strategy for Syria and Iraq as well as the ISIL/Da'esh threat, the Eastern Partnership, and Libya.

Finland used EUR 1.16 billion on official development assistance (ODA) in 2015. Humanitarian aid was the biggest sector, indicates preliminary data on Finland’s development cooperation.