Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is increasing the efficiency of its organisation and leadership. From the beginning of September, the number of departments will be decreased from twelve to eight and at the same time, units will be merged.

HELSINKI, 22 August 2008 – The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, welcomed today the Belarusian authorities’ release of prisoners Aleksandr Kozulin, Andrey Kim, and Sergei Parsyukevich.

TBILISI, 21 August 2008 - The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finland's Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, said today that the Organization was strongly committed to helping stabilize the current situation in Georgia.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will visit Georgia on Thursday, 21 August.

The OSCE will strengthen its presence in Georgia and increase the number of military monitoring officers by up to 100.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, was pleased with Tuesday’s, 19 August, decision by the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna to increase the number of unarmed military monitoring officers to the Mission to Georgia by up to 100.

The Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, is to meet on Monday 18 August and on Tuesday 19 August in Brussels representatives from key organisations involved in handling the Georgia crisis: the OSCE, the EU, NATO and the UN.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, voiced grave concern today about the safety of civilians in and around the South Ossetia conflict area, and will push for an increase of Military Monitoring Officers of the OSCE Mission to Georgia by up to one hundred.

After having agreed about the matter with Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen, Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb announced in the meeting of the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels today that Finland is prepared to provide support for humanitarian assistance of civilian victims of the crisis in Georgia up to the amount of one million euro.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, welcomed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's decision on Tuesday to halt the military operation in Georgia and said the OSCE stood ready to help monitor any ceasefire and assist in humanitarian relief efforts.