Foreign Ministry's press releases

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, expressed serious concern today about military activity on the Line of Contact in the conflict dealt with by the OSCE Minsk Conference on the morning of 4 March, in particular over reports of casualties including fatalities. 

Representatives of the Finnish, Estonian and Russian air forces met in Helsinki on Wednesday, 5 March to discuss the use of airspace over the Gulf of Finland. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will meet with United Nations Development Programme Administrator Kemal Dervis in Helsinki on Thursday, 6 March.

Maritime and inland waterways transports and the challenges facing landlocked countries will be discussed at the Second Preparatory Conference to the 16th OSCE Economic and Environmental Forum in Ashgabad, Turkmenistan on 6–7 March. This is the first international event within the sphere of the OSCE to be held in Turkmenistan. Organisation of the conference is linked with the government’s policy of gradual opening.

Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, the Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, called today on Armenia’s authorities to lift the state of emergency as soon as possible and to encourage political dialogue.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva condemned the use of force against peaceful demonstrators in Yerevan today.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, sent his Special Envoy, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, to Yerevan today to try to help overcome a political crisis that led to violence and the declaration of a state of emergency.

Secretary of State Pertti Torstila expressed on Friday Finland's support to the activities of the OSCE in promoting freedom of speech at a seminar celebrating the tenth anniversary of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media.

Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen chaired the opening session of the ministerial conference between the European Union and the Mediterranean countries in Cairo on Wednesday. The topic of the conference was