Foreign Ministry's press releases

The Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, is in Moldova today to hold talks with President Vladimir Voronin. A meeting with Transdniestrian leader Igor Smirnov has been requested.

The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will meet in Brussels on Tuesday, 22 July. The meeting will focus on key issues concerning Africa and the Middle East, and on the EU-Ukraine relations. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Stubb, will represent Finland at the meeting.

The General Affairs and External Relations Council of the EU will hold an extraordinary meeting in Brussels on Friday, 18 July. The only topic on the agenda is the current situation of the Doha round of trade negotiations under way in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and preparations for the ministerial meeting that will begin in Geneva on 21 July. The Finnish representative at the Council meeting will be Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission 250,000 euros for reconstruction of the earthquake region in China, and 100,000 euros to Fida International for assistance to Myanmar in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis.

Finnish women experience a considerable amount of violence even if the level of equality in the country is advanced in many ways, estimated The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in New York. At the focus of the Committee on 9 July was a Finnish hearing with two reports on Finland from 2003 and 2007.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen has appointed Riikka Manner (née Pakarinen) as his Press Attaché. Before starting at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Manner worked as an assistant to Finnish MP Eero Reijonen at the Finnish Parliament.

Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will make his first visit as foreign minister of Finland to Washington, D.C. on 16–19 July, where he will meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the United States.

An OSCE meeting on improving the integration of Roma and Sinti opened today in Vienna with calls to participating States to step up their efforts to end widespread discrimination.

A summit for the EU and Mediterranean countries will take place in Paris on Sunday, 13 July. The meeting will be organised by France, the country currently holding the EU Presidency. The EU Member States, 12 countries participating in the Barcelona Process, and Libya, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Monaco have been invited to the summit in Paris. President of the Republic Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen will represent Finland at the meeting.