Singapore
The EU Foreign Affairs Council will meet on 4 May in Brussels in its development configuration.
Finland’s new government must promote global sustainable development and strengthen Finland’s positive handprint abroad. In this way, we can also safeguard Finland’s own security in the long term. This is the Development Policy Committee's key message to the government-formation negotiators in 2023.
Under-Secretary of State Kai Sauer and the foreign ministers of Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden visited Chisinau in Moldova and Odesa in Ukraine on 27–28 April.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs completes Finland’s relief effort in Sudan on Thursday 27 April.
During the state visit of the President of the Republic of Finland to the Republic of South Africa, a Letter of Intent on Co-Operation in Peace Mediation was signed on 25 April between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland and the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of the Republic of South Africa.
A new human rights treaty will enter into force in Finland. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance will enter into force in Finland on 23 April 2023. Finland ratified the Convention a month earlier in New York.
EU foreign ministers will convene in Luxembourg on 24 April. Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will represent Finland at the meeting.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs awarded EUR 13 million to five international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) for 2023–2025. This is an established call for government grant applications. The previous call for applications was in 2021.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will meet Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna in Helsinki on 18 April.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put pressure on official development assistance (ODA) budgets in Finland and in many other EU Member States, according to the preliminary data on 2022 released by the OECD today. Especially the level of in-donor refugee costs increased in Finland.