Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Kari Ahlberg to the post of Press Officer at the Embassy of Finland in Moscow for a fixed term. The term of appointment is three years and it begins at the start of October.

“We need more women in senior positions as OSCE mission leaders and deputies, lead mediators and advisers to them,” said Development Minister Pekka Haavisto in his address as a keynote speaker at the High-level Opening Session of the OSCE Gender Equality Review Conference in Vienna on 10 July.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will participate widely in SuomiAreena in Pori on 16–18 July. At the current affairs debate organized by the Foreign Ministry on 16 July all three ministers of the Foreign Ministry will address the new challenges to Finland’s foreign policy. On the same day, the global summer school will bring to Pori more than one hundred young people to reflect on solutions to climate change and international conflicts. Signmark will perform to open both events.

Development Minister Pekka Haavisto will attend the Gender Equality Review Conference on 10 July. The conference in Vienna is organized by the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The two-day meeting will review the implementation thus far of the OSCE Action Plan for the Promotion of Gender Equality adopted in 2004, and will prepare future work.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Lenita Toivakka characterizes the multilateral negotiations to liberalize trade in environmental goods (Environmental Goods Agreement, EGA) beginning today in Geneva as most welcome from the perspective of Finnish industry. The liberalization of trade in environmental goods would promote sustainable development, the green economy as well as measures to combat climate change.

Finland is increasing its humanitarian assistance to South Sudan by 4 million euros. As a result of the crisis in South Sudan, 1.5 million people have had to leave their homes. Almost 400,000 of them have fled to neighbouring countries. There are 3.8 million people in need of assistance, and the risk of famine is great.

Development Minister Pekka Haavisto will participate in the ministerial meeting of the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York on 7 to 9 July. The meeting takes placed during the High-level Segment of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) from 7 to 11 July 2014.

The attitudes of Finns towards development cooperation have remained positive: 82 per cent of the population considers development cooperation to be very important or rather important. “It's great that Finns see the importance of development cooperation. At the same time, citizens’ need for information must be met: the study shows that more information is needed about the results of the work done and the use of appropriations,” Development Minister Pekka Haavisto says.

Finland and Mexico served as Co-chairs of the Good Humanitarian Donorshipr (GHD) group for the period 2013–2014. During their co-chairmanship, the countries stressed the links between the environment and humanitarian assistance.

The EU signed Free Trade Agreements with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia on 27 June. Free trade is part of the Association Agreements concluded with these countries.