Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit London on 10 September and have a meeting with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Haavisto will also meet Tom Tugendhat, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Oslo on 4 September and hold discussions with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Ine Eriksen Søreide.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will speak at a meeting of the European Parliament Committee on International Trade (INTA) in Brussels on 3 September.

Minister for Nordic Cooperation Thomas Blomqvist will attend a meeting of Ministers for Nordic Cooperation in Edinburgh on 3 September 2019.

The Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) published its first evaluation report on Finland on 2 September 2019. The report analyses the implementation of the provisions of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Finland.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Slovenia and attend the 2019 Bled Strategic Forum on 3 September. The Forum will gather heads of state, foreign ministers, representatives of international organisations, and leaders representing business life and academia.

The topics of discussion at the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs (Gymnich) included the wider Middle East, the Arctic region, hybrid threats and regional cooperation with the Western Balkan partners. After the meeting, Finland arranged a separate informal lunch, which was also attended by a number of invited human rights defenders from around the world.

On 2 September, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit the European Parliament in Brussels to present the priorities of Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the EU and exchange views on current EU external relations matters with members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Stockholm on 30 August to meet Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation Peter Eriksson and Minister for Foreign Trade Ann Linde.

The 14th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification will convene in New Delhi, India, on 2 to 13 September 2019. Finland represents the European Union and its member states as part of Finland's Presidency of the Council of the European Union.