Foreign Ministry's press releases

The ASEAN Regional Forum Experts and Eminent Persons group (ARF EEP) will convene in Helsinki on 12–13 March 2015. Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will open the meeting.

The President of the Republic has today granted Ambassador Petri Salo the authority to sign on Finland’s behalf the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Convention on the application of transparency rules relating to investor-state dispute settlement to Finland’s valid investment protection agreements.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will travel to Geneva on Monday, 9 March. Minister Tuomioja will participate in the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Disarmament Conference, and he will visit the South Centre.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs together with the Confederation of Finnish Industries organised a discussion event on the preconditions for service business on 5 March 2015. The keynote speakers at the event, entitled “Not only laundering shirts” – The rising importance of services to the Finnish economy, were Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka and OECD Deputy Secretary-General Mari Kiviniemi.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will attend the EU Foreign Ministers' Informal Meeting (Gymnich) at Riga from 6 to 7 March.

Greenpeace together with the independent meeting organiser QED are arranging the high-level EU Arctic Dialogue, to take place near Brussels on 4 March. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland is the official patron of the event.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol were approved in the plenary session of Parliament today. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja considers that this parliamentary decision is a strong political message in the ratification process of the Convention and a very positive step in the promotion of the human rights of persons with disabilities.

Finland, as a partner country, will participate in the NATO Crisis Management Exercise 2015 (CMX15) on 4-10 March. CMX is NATO’s regularly-held decision-making and consultation exercise that is open for NATO partner countries for the sixth time. Finland also took part in the previous crisis management exercises open to partner countries, which were held in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Secretary of State Peter Stenlund will hold Finland's presentation at the four-day High-Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) session on 3 March.

Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, will visit Finland on 5 March at the invitation of Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. High Representative Mogherini will have talks with Foreign Minister Tuomioja, and meet President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Alexander Stubb.