Foreign Ministry's press releases

The prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Serge Brammertz, will visit Helsinki on 21 – 23 of January. During his visit Prosecutor Brammertz will take part in a conference for Nordic war crime prosecutors, organized by the Office of the Prosecutor General, and meet representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Finnish prosecution system.

At the Travel Fair, the Foreign Ministry tells about travel safety issues: what a travel bulletin is and how a travel notification can now be filed easily on a new website. At the same time, information is given on how to travel sustainably. The MATKA 2013 Travel Fair takes place at the Helsinki Convention and Exhibition Centre and is open to the public from Friday, 18 January to Sunday, 20 January.

The coming chair of the Arctic Council, Canada’s Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq, will visit Finland on 17 and 18 January.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise a meeting of the Group of Friends of Mediation in Helsinki on 17 to 18 January. The meeting will be attended by representatives from approximately 30 countries, four regional organisations and the UN.

Focus on the Economy and Technology, an annual publication showcasing Finland and targeted at key international markets, has just been published for the eleventh time. This year’s issue highlights Finland’s strengths in start-up entrepreneurship, work-life balance and sustainable technology.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is continuing its review of Finland’s network of diplomatic missions in 2013. The changes are driven by the operational budget cuts and the Government programme’s effort to strengthen Finland’s presence in the regions and countries whose importance is growing.

In 2012, Finland’s missions abroad processed a total of 1,376,425 visa applications, which is an all-time record high. The increase in the amount of visas granted was up by 10 per cent on the year before. In the past five years, the number of visa applications submitted to Finnish missions has more than doubled: in 2007 the number of applications processed totalled 644,800.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, together with the Council of Europe and the Finnish delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, is organising a regional conference on the Council of Europe convention to combat violence against women and domestic violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, on 17 January. Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will open the conference.

Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen and Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will host an informal high-level meeting, a Lapland retreat, in Saariselkä, Inari, Finland, on 22–24 March 2013. Discussions at the informal meeting will focus on the future of the European Union. Topical issues will not be on the agenda.

On December 20, Finland and the United States signed in Helsinki a “Memorandum of Understanding” through which they will continue their cooperation in preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Finland’s contribution to the U.S.-led programme will be used to provide radiation detection equipment to Ukraine to detect and deter nuclear smuggling across its international borders. Finland has previously provided funding for similar activities in 2010 and 2011.