Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will attend the EU Foreign Affairs Council Meeting of Development Ministers to be held in Brussels on 24 May. The main issues on the agenda are Sudan, the Commission’s annual report on development financing and water issues.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on 23 May. The main topics of the meeting are the Middle East peace process and the situation in the EU’s Southern Neighbourhood.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will meet with Ambassador Susan Rice, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, in Helsinki on 17 May. By virtue of her position, Ambassador Rice, a member of President Barack Obama’s close circle, also belongs to the American Cabinet.

The Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held in Istanbul on 9–13 May unanimously approved a programme of action aiming to improve the position of the least developed countries. The Finnish delegation at the conference was led by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen. In her speech she stressed balance between the economic, social and ecological dimensions of sustainable development.

Geopolitics of peacemaking is the theme of the seminar organised by the Finnish Ambassador to Turkmenistan Tuula Yrjölä and the UN Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia in Ashgabat, capital of Turkmenistan, on Monday, 16 May.

One of the largest UN meetings this year, the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries started in Istanbul today. The delegates will consider how the policies practiced should be changed, and how positive development could be enhanced. A new programme of action will be drawn up for the least developed countries. Ambassador Jarmo Viinanen has chaired the negotiations concerning the final document of the conference.

The Seventh Ministerial Meeting of the Arctic Council will be held in Nuuk, Greenland, on 11-12 May. The theme of the meeting is the change of the Arctic region, and the challenges and opportunities this change presents to international cooperation.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb was informed early this morning that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had died as a result of a strike by American special forces in Pakistan. “A page of history turned in the fight against terrorism,” Foreign Minister Stubb emphasises. He points out that we must unfortunately be prepared that the risk of terrorist strikes against travellers abroad will be greater than usual. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs updates its travel recommendations as needed.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs updated its travel bulletin concerning Syria on 25 April. The Ministry recommends avoiding travel to Syria, and people already in the country are urged to consider leaving unless their presence there is absolutely necessary.

A total of 35,049 voters cast their ballots for the parliamentary elections at Finnish diplomatic missions abroad. The number of voters increased on the figure for the parliamentary elections of 2007 by 27.9 per cent. Advance voting for the parliamentary elections was organised this year in 91 countries, where there was a total of 241 polling stations. As before, the most advance votes were cast in Sweden.