Foreign Ministry's press releases

“The EU in the future needs a comprehensive global strategy encompassing trade policy, development policy and environment policy,” Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen stated in Helsinki today after his meeting with European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will be present at the Sixteenth Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, 28 February. Dozens of foreign ministers from all over the world will take part in the high-level segment to debate topical human rights issues. Attention is expected to focus particularly on the human rights situation in North Africa. Minister Stubb will also discuss this topic in his speech.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen met with Deputy Prime Minister Aset Issekeshev of Kazakhstan in Helsinki on Wednesday, 23 February. The main focus of the talks was trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Minister Väyrynen raised, in particular, Finland's expertise of high technology and innovation to the fore.

European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht will visit Finland on 25 February 2011 at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is still determining the situation of Finns in New Zealand following the devastating earthquake. It is known at the Ministry that about 90 Finns are in New Zealand, and contact has been made with nearly all of them. The Ministry is continuing its efforts to reach the Finns with whom contact has not been made yet.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb says that Finland strongly condemns all of the violence with which the Libyan government has reacted to citizens’ legitimate and understandable demands. In its travel bulletin, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs continues to recommend that all travel to Libya be avoided. Finns living or otherwise currently present in Libya are asked to update the information they have given the embassy.

The sixth meeting of the Joint Committee of Finnish and Kazakhstan Governments will be held in Helsinki on 23 Februry.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will attend the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers for Development Cooperation in Brussels on 22 February. The agenda for the meeting includes debate on the future of the EU’s development policy, future financing of external relations, the connection between security and development particularly in the light of the situations in the Sahel and Sudan as well as the situation in Egypt, Tunisia and more widely in the region.

By decision of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted humanitarian aid appropriations for the first part of the year, totalling 58 million euros, to people suffering from the world’s crises. Finland’s entire humanitarian aid budget for 2011 totals 78 million euros.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen made an export promotion trip to Angola on 15–17 February. This was the first official ministerial visit from Finland to Angola. The visit was hosted by Minister of Commerce Maria Idalina de Oliveira Valente. The ministers agreed on the preparation of a document on cooperation for the development of economic relations between Finland and Angola that would promote cooperation between both official bodies and companies.