Foreign Ministry's press releases

On October 30th in Helsinki, U.S. Ambassador Bruce J. Oreck and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Pertti Torstila signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” through which the Government of Finland will contribute funding to a U.S.-led program to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Kyrgyz Republic.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will visit China and Japan on 1-6 November. The programme in China will include discussions and a working lunch with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, a meeting with Vice President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping, as well as discussions with influential persons and researchers within the field of international politics.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will attend the annual meeting of Nordic Ministers for Foreign Trade on 28 October in Stockholm.

The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will meet on 26 and 27 October in Luxembourg. The main themes of the Council are preparations for the European Council and the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb and Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors will represent Finland at the meeting.

Erkki Nghimtina, the Minister of Mines and Energy of Namibia, will visit Finland on 21-23 October at the invitation of Minister of Economic Affairs Mauri Pekkarinen.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will participate in a meeting between the EU ministers for development and the executives of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to be organised in Stockholm on 21 October. In their meeting, the participants will discuss the possibility of enhanced EU-US development policy dialogue.

Under-Secretary of State Pekka Huhtaniemi will visit Morocco on 21-24 October and Algeria on 24-27 October accompanied by representatives of ten Finnish companies.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will accompany President of the Republic Tarja Halonen on her official visit to Egypt and Syria on 19-23 October.

Helen Clark, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, will visit Finland on 19-20 October at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen.

Abdoulie Janneh, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, will visit Finland on 19-20 October.