Elisa Tarkiainen and Eemil Nuuttila appointed special advisers to Minister for Foreign Affairs Valtonen

Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen has appointed Elisa Tarkiainen and Eemil Nuuttila to serve as her special advisers.

In the Minister’s team, Elisa Tarkiainen will be responsible for horizontal political and security issues, and matters related to Europe, the Americas and Asia. Tarkiainen will also be responsible for matters related to protocol, administration and financial management. In addition, she will assist the Minister more broadly in matters related to domestic politics.

Elisa Tarkiainen will transfer to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from the City of Helsinki, where she has served as senior political adviser to the deputy mayor. Previously, Tarkiainen has worked as special adviser to the party leadership at the National Coalition Party headquarters and as special adviser to the Minister of Finance in Prime Minister Sipilä's Government. At that time, she was responsible for EU and international financial affairs. Tarkiainen holds a Master's degree in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Hull in the United Kingdom.  

Eemil Nuuttila will be responsible for matters relating to Africa and the Middle East and for legal and consular services. Nuuttila will also be responsible for the Minister's communications and media relations. In addition, Nuuttila will monitor matters related to trade policy and development cooperation. Nuuttila will transfer to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from the National Coalition Party parliamentary group, where he has worked as an economic policy specialist especially in industrial policy and taxation.

Lauri Tierala will serve as State Secretary to Minister for Foreign Affairs Valtonen. He will also serve as State Secretary to Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen.

Johanna Lukkarila, Laila Clyne and Sampo Saarinen will continue as diplomatic advisers in the team of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Diplomatic advisers are officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.