Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will visit St. Petersburg on Wednesday 30 May.

Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will visit Warsaw on Wednesday 30 May and meet Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. The topics of discussion will include the EU’s Eastern Neighbourhood, cooperation between Finland and Poland within the operative sector of the ministries of foreign affairs, and the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy.

Finland holds the Presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) when it meets in Geneva from 28 May to 22 June 2012. The Presidency is the second for Finland; the previous time Finland held the Presidency of the Conference was in 2002.

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will visit Tanzania from 29 May to 3 June. During her trip the Minister will learn about topical Tanzanian development issues and the development cooperation financed by Finland, she will have talks with the Government of Tanzania concerning the implementation of the new Finnish development policy programme, and she will participate in the annual meeting of the African Development Bank.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Helena Autio-Meloni to a fixed-term post as Cultural Counsellor at the Embassy of Finland in Moscow and Sanna Kangasharju to a fixed-term post as Press Counsellor at the Embassy of Finland in Washington. Each term of appointment is for three years.

The President of the Republic appointed the Finnish delegation to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) on Friday, 25 May. The conference will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on 20–22 June.

On 23 May, Finland participates for the second time in the universal periodic review (UPR) undertaken by the UN Human Rights Council. The Human Rights Council reviews the human rights situation of all UN Member States at intervals of roughly four years. In practice, the review taking placing in Geneva means a dialogue of three and a half hours between the Finnish delegation of experts, led by Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala, and other UN Member States.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja will visit New York on 22–23 May. He will meet UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, with whom he will discuss, among other topics, the Middle East peace process and the situation in Syria as well as the promotion of peace mediation within the scope of the UN.

The Chicago NATO Summit on 20-21 May will include a meeting on Afghanistan and a NATO special partners meeting. The Finnish delegation will be led by the President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö. The delegation includes Minister for Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja and Minister of Defence Stefan Wallin.

On Wednesday 16 May, the Government adopted a cross-sectoral action plan on Finland’s external economic relations. Implementation of the programme will support employment in Finland and, in particular, the internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).