Foreign Ministry's press releases

Research publication Comprehensive Approach – Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Cooperation in Crisis Prevention and Management is published

Finland has submitted its fourth regular report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The previous, third report was presented in 2003.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said today he welcomed the important step forward taken in the discussions on Georgia in Geneva, co-chaired by the OSCE, UN and EU.

After discussions with the leaders of Ethiopia during his visit to the country, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen suggested that the country should open up its economy and develop the market economy mechanisms.

Paavo Väyrynen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, will travel to Ethiopia and Kenya on 17–21 November. Topics of discussion during the visit include Finland’s development cooperation, familiarization with the development policy programmes of Ethiopia and Kenya, and Finland’s possibilities to supplement and support each country’s actions aiming at poverty reduction and sustainable development.

On Friday, 14 November, the President of the Republic and the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy discussed Finland’s participation in international crisis management. Key operations include the NATO-led KFOR operation in Kosovo and the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. The current strength of the Finnish peacekeeping force is approximately 450 in KFOR, 100 in ISAF and 60 in Chad.

Foreign Minister Stubb will visit Dublin and London on 19-21 November.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said on 11 November in Moscow that he supports discussions on the future of security in Europe within the OSCE framework.

His Royal Highness Prince Mired Bin Raad Al-Hussein of Jordan, President of the Eighth Meeting of the States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (the Ottawa Convention) will visit Finland on 12 November.

The European Union will continue its negotiations on cooperation with Russia. The matter was decided at the General Affairs and External Relations Council of the EU in Brussels on Monday, 10 November. “In the end we decided that negotiations can be started at the EU-Russia Summit,” Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said in Brussels.