Foreign Ministry's press releases

At the invitation of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will attend the Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), which takes place on 5–6 June 2013 in Kaliningrad. Russia has held the Presidency of the CBSS for the past year.

Foreign Minister Tuomioja signed the international Arms Trade Treaty on behalf of Finland today, on 3 June 2013 in New York. Finland is one of the seven initiators of the Arms Trade Treaty, together with Australia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will travel to New York on Sunday to sign the Arms Trade Treaty on 3 June.

A business delegation chaired by Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will make a Team Finland export promotion visit to Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 4–6 June. The delegation will consist of approximately 60 representatives of Finnish companies and organisations as well as the Finnish-Russian Chamber of Commerce. The companies represent, for example, the construction, energy, cleantech, food and foodstuff industry, education, tourism and trade sectors.

On 3-4 June, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen will participate in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) summit in Kirkenes, Norway. The prime ministers' summit in Kirkenes will mark 20 years of successful collaboration across borders in the Barents region. The summit will focus on future economic and social objectives, as well as goals relating to the environment and climate change in the Barents region.

In autumn 2012, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs collaborated with the rest of the Team Finland network to survey the challenges encountered by Finnish companies in their internationalisation and trade efforts. The results of the survey were published at Finlandia Hall on Tuesday 28 May. The survey on obstacles to internationalisation and trade now presented is the first of its kind.

On Friday 24 May, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed Finland's participation in international crisis management.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will convene in Brussels on 27 May. The items on the meeting agenda are the EU Southern Neighbourhood, the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, the Middle East peace process and Mali. Finland’s representative in the meeting will be Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will attend the Development Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on 28 November. The main topics of the meeting will include the global development agenda beyond 2015 and the programming of EU development aid for 2014–2020.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Leonid Kozhara will visit Finland on 28 May at the invitation of Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.