Foreign Ministry's press releases

UN requests Finland to deploy two military observers to advance preparation team of UN observer mission in Syria

On 19 April, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will participate in the ISAF meeting of foreign ministers organised in connection with the meeting of foreign ministers and defence ministers of NATO countries in Brussels.

Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala will attend the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD XIII) on 20–23 April. Among her other activities there, Minister Hautala will be one of the main panellists at the Ministerial Round Table Addressing the policy challenges for investment and enterprise development, exploring the links between foreign trade and poverty.

Minister for Nordic Cooperation Alexander Stubb has convened a working group of young people to contemplate the future of Nordic cooperation, with the aim of including young people’s views in the discussion of the Nordic cooperation and its future. The group met for the first time on 16 April.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and representatives of the environment administration have on 16 April discussed the event in which a researcher from the Finnish Environment Institute SYKE was arrested on 11 April 2012 during an official sampling trip to the River Luga in Kingisepp, Russia.

A Finnish group of health care experts, deployed by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, is currently visiting Libya.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has on 14 April received a request from the UN Secretariat’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations to authorise the possible deployment of military observers from ongoing operations to preparation of the observer mission to be established in Syria. The UN also calls on Member States to prepare to deploy military observers for the actual mission.

On Friday 13 April, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed Finland's participation in international crisis management.

Finland will be one of the conveners when Myanmar’s peace process is explored in Yangon in June. The purpose of the meeting is to support the peace negotiations between the Government of Myanmar and ethnic groups.

Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić of Serbia will visit Finland on 12 April and will meet with Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja and Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb.