Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will attend the Nordic Foreign Ministers’ Meeting hosted by Iceland in Reykholt on 29–30 April.

The fourth conference of the Coalition for Freedom Online (FOC) takes place in Tallinn on 28–29 April. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will attend the Freedom Online Coalition Ministerial Meeting to be held on the first day of the conference. At this high-level meeting, the ministers will discuss the Coalition’s activities to support the implementation of human rights on the Internet.

Jennifer Welsh, UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect will visit Finland from 27 to 29 April. She will participate in the regional meeting on the responsibility to protect, arranged by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the United Nations.

Minister Stubb estimated that the talks will take the EU-US relations to a new phase, which, in addition to being a trade and investment partnership, also constitutes a strategic partnership. Freedom of trade enhances the economic situation and boosts economic growth on both sides of the Atlantic.

Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto will visit Geneva on 22 April. The purpose of the visit is to meet leaders of the key UN humanitarian aid agencies, and to discuss mediation and fragile states.

On Wednesday 16 April 2014, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed the situation in Ukraine.

Minister of Trade and Industry of Ghana Haruna Iddrisu will visit Finland on 22–23 April and meet Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb.

Mexico will host the High-Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation on 15–16 April, with over 1,300 experts and decision-makers on development policy and co-operation expected to attend. The Finnish delegation will be chaired by Minister for International Development Pekka Haavisto.

Yesterday, the UN Human Rights Committee publicized its views on a complaint concerning the slaughtering of reindeer in Nellim. The Committee did not find any breach in the case.

On Friday 11 April, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons and the further measures required by the international community. The Cabinet Committee outlined that Finland will participate in the multinational mission in the Mediterranean Sea with a ship inspection division consisting of a maximum of 20 soldiers.