Foreign Minister Tuomioja visits the Middle East

Press release 109/2005
1 April, 2005


Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja will visit the Middle East on 3-6 April. He will visit Egypt on 3 April, Israel on 4 April, the Palestinian territories on 5 April and Jordan on 6 April.

In Egypt Foreign Minister Tuomioja will meet with his counterpart Abul Gheit and deliver an address titled "Europe and the Middle East - an Ever-Evolving Partnership" at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.

In Israel Tuomioja will have discussions with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Trade, Industry and Labour Minister and Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and opposition leader Tommy Lapid. Tuomioja will lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

In the Palestinian territories Tuomioja will meet with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Ahmed Qurie (Abu Ala), Minister of Planning Ghassan Khatib and the chief negotiator of the PLO Saeb Erekat. He will also lay a wreath at the grave of President Yasser Arafat, visit a refugee camp and meet representatives of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Minister Tuomioja's visit to Jordan will be hosted by Foreign Minister Hani Fawzi al-Mulki. Tuomioja will also meet with the UN Secretary General's Deputy Special Representative for Iraq, Staffan de Mistura, and Finnish police officers who are in Amman training Iraqi police force.

Discussions will focus on bilateral relations and the prospects of the Middle East peace process, but other current issues may also be discussed. In all destinations Foreign Minister Tuomioja will also meet representatives of non-governmental organisations and research community.

Further information: Counsellor Jarno Syrjälä, Unit for the Middle East and North Africa, tel. +358 9 1605 5405, gsm +358 40 836 0594, and Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Marianne Huusko-Lamponen, gsm +358 40 569 6235