Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Plenary Meeting of the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism, GICNT will be held in Helsinki's Finlandia Hall 16–17 June, 2015. The heads of the delegations are high-ranking civil servants. In addition, nearly 200 experts from different fields representing 62 countries and five international organisations have registered to attend the meeting.

Island's Minister for Foreign Affairs Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson will visit Helsinki from 10 to 11 June 2015.

Under-Secretary of State for external economic relations Matti Anttonen will visit Egypt from 7 to 10 June 2015 and Algeria from 10 to 12 June 2015, accompanied by representatives of seventeen Finnish companies. The aim of the trade mission is to raise awareness of Finnish companies and their products in Egypt and Algeria, to discover new markets and to promote the business activities of Finnish enterprises already based in the countries.

The participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE, will convene for an informal high-level meeting in Helsinki on 10 July. In addition to the OSCE Troika, that is the Foreign Ministers of Switzerland, Serbia and Germany, deputy ministers from 57 participating States have been invited to attend the meeting.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Lenita Toivakka reminds that the world has taken major steps forward in, for example, the eradication of extreme poverty and improvement of health and education.

According to the draft of an independent review published on 4 June, Finnish development cooperation is of a good average standard and produces positive results in developing countries.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Markus Kokko to serve as temporary Press and Culture Officer at the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo, Japan. The three-year term will start at the beginning of August.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will pay his first ministerial visit to Stockholm on 2 June and meet with the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Margot Wallström. During his visit to Tallinn on 3 June, Minister Soini will meet the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Keit Pentus-Rosimannus.

Finland together with a number of European countries will join the Solidarity Sabbath on Friday 22 May. The campaign aims to highlight the need to confront the tide of anti-Semitism.

Prime Minister Alexander Stubb will participate in the Eastern Partnership Summit of the EU to be held on 21-22 May in Riga. Goals of the Eastern Partnership include the promotion of stability and democracy in the EU's eastern neighbourhoods. The partner countries are Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia.