Foreign Ministry's press releases

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will hold its first meeting of the year in Brussels on Monday 25 January. Finland will be represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. Climate and energy diplomacy of the EU and discussions with the Foreign Minister of Japan will be the main topics of the meeting. At lunch, the ministers will discuss cooperation between the EU and the United Kingdom in foreign and security policy. The arrest of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny will also be raised.

Finland must pay stronger and more consistent attention to biodiversity in its development policy and international advocacy work. In addition, developing countries should be supported in their efforts to implement biodiversity agreements. The view is expressed by the Development Policy Committee’s expert group, whose analysis on safeguarding biodiversity was published on Friday 22 January.

Finland will grant EUR 5 million to the International Trade Centre (ITC) in 2021–2022 to support women’s and young people’s business activities in developing countries. The agreement was signed on 18 January 2021 in Geneva.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has today issued two decisions concerning Finland by which it has removed these matters from its list of cases.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will meet Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anže Logar in Helsinki on Thursday 14 January.

Today, on Sunday 20 December 2020, Finland repatriated six Finnish children and two adult mothers from north-east Syria. The persons are now in the care of competent Finnish authorities.

Finland provided a historic total of EUR 115 million in humanitarian aid in 2020. Humanitarian aid is one of the most concrete ways of responding to crises and disasters. More than 200 million people across the globe need humanitarian aid due to conflicts, natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic.

The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) is an important intergovernmental organisation that promotes free, open and safe internet. Finland will serve as the Coalition Chair in 2021.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet in Brussels on Monday 7 December. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main themes of the meeting will be transatlantic relations and the EU’s strategic autonomy.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on 3–4 December 2020. The Foreign Ministers of the OSCE participating States will participate in the meeting via video teleconferencing (VTC) under the leadership of Albania, which holds the current OSCE Chairmanship. The meeting aims to decide on appointments of senior OSCE officials and to confirm the Chairmanships for 2023 and 2024.