Foreign Ministry's press releases

Finland will dispatch three border experts to Tajikistan to support OSCE border security and management projects in Central Asia. Colonel (Retd) Juhani Paakkinen and Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) Seppo Juntunen of the Finnish Border Guard will serve as OSCE experts and will assist the Tajikistan authorities in establishing a national border strategy. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs has donated 180,000 euros to the project.

The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva, will visit Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan on 25-28 February.

Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta will visit Finland on 28-29 February at the invitation of Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva as part of his visit to the Nordic countries. The ministers will discuss, among other issues, the development cooperation between Finland and Afghanistan and the situation and the future prospects in Afghanistan.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will make an export promotion and internalisation trip to Egypt on 24–27 February. Travelling with the minister is a business delegation of more than 20 people, including representatives of the information technology, health, construction, environment, finance and energy sectors and the defence industry.

Finland announced on Monday it will recognise Kosovo's independence and it will launch national preparations to this end. European Union foreign ministers reached an agreement concerning the EU stand on the independence declaration of Kosovo. Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva considers the result very important with regard to the development of the region and the unity of the EU.

The EU has decided to launch the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX Kosovo, which will take over certain tasks from the UN Mission in Kosovo. The mission is a civilian crisis management operation under the European Security and Defence Policy. It will be the largest civilian crisis management operation for the EU – and at the same time, for Finland – to date, with a total recruitment of about 3,000 international and local staff. The estimated number of Finnish experts is 60–70.

The EU General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will meet in Brussels on Monday, 18 February. Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva and Minister of Migration and European Affairs Astrid Thors will attend the Council meeting.

The OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, Eva Biaudet will visit Finland on 18 and 19 February. She will be a key note speaker at the seminar