Foreign Ministry's press releases

With a view to internationalisation plans, Russia remains the most attractive market for Finnish companies and export promotion visits made to various regions of Russia interest them. At the same time, considering the barriers to trade and investments, Russia is also the country viewed as the most problematic. The EU markets call for attention as well. These issues emerged in the survey on internationalisation plans and trade barriers directed to Finnish companies.

The national Ahtisaari Day will be celebrated on Thursday 8 November. This year, the main venue of the Ahtisaari Day will be Helsinki, and the programme will be divided into events intended for schools, the general public and experts.

EU Special Representative to Middle East Peace Process Andreas Reinicke will visit Finland on 1-2 November.

Finland, as a partner country, will participate in the NATO Crisis Management Exercise 2012 (CMX12) and its cyber element Cyber Coalition 2012 (CC12) on 12-16 November. CMX is NATO’s annual decision-making and consultation exercise that is open for NATO partner countries for the fifth time. Finland also took part in the previous crisis management exercises open to partner countries, which were held in 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011.

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will take a Team Finland export promotion trip to South Africa and Namibia on 5-9 November. The destinations in South Africa include the country's financial centre Johannesburg, the capital Pretoria and Cape Town, and in Namibia the capital Windhoek. Minister Stubb travels with a delegation of 23 business representatives, brought together by Finpro.

The affairs on the agenda of the meeting between Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Song Tao on 29 October included enhancement of bilateral relations between Finland and China, the economic situation of the eurozone and, as regards questions of international politics, Syria and the nuclear weapons issue of Iran.

Mari-Kaisa Brander will start as Press Attaché to Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb on 19 November. Minister Stubb's current Press Attaché Antti Timonen will take up the task of Head of Communications Strategy Unit for the EPP Group in the European Parliament on 1 November.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs has commissioned two special audits in the Finnish-funded support program for national forest sector in Mozambique. The Foreign Ministry has decided to cease support through the Ministry of Agriculture of Mozambique on account of irregularities in program activities. Finland will also postpone the planned cooperation to develop agriculture in Mozambique.

The chairs of the Finnish–Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation met in Helsinki on 26 October. This was the first meeting between Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the new chairman for the Russian side.

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will visit Mozambique and Zambia on 28 October - 2 November. The two countries and Finland have enjoyed long-lasting bilateral development cooperation relations.