Foreign Ministry reorganises mission network in Mideast and Africa

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has decided to reorganise its mission network in Africa and the Middle East by strengthening the resources of the leading regional embassies. A regional mission can manage Finland’s political, trade and cultural relations as well as oversee Finnish interests better than a mission operating with minimal resources. Focusing activities to missions with better resources will produce added value.

The reorganisation plans in Africa and the Middle East are part of an ongoing review of the Finnish mission network as a whole. The review originates from a June 2001 report to the parliamentary foreign affairs committee discussing the challenges facing the foreign service. The committee in its statement in December 2001 cemented the guidelines for the development of the mission network.

Four small missions in the African/Mideast region will be closed down while four existing missions will be strengthened. The missions to be closed are those in Harare, Tripoli, Beirut and Kuwait. There are a total of six transferred personnel working in these missions.

There is no longer official Finnish development cooperation in Zimbabwe and cooperation in other areas is minor as well. Finnish activities in the Southern African region will be focused on Mozambique and South Africa. Consequently, the Finnish mission in Maputo will be upgraded to ambassadorial level.

The mission in Tripoli will be closed down and the mission in Tunis will be upgraded as a regional centre at ambassadorial level.

Finnish relations with Lebanon can be conducted from the nearby Damaskos which will become a regional embassy upgraded to ambassadorial level. The mission in Beirut will be closed down.

Activities in the Persian Gulf region will be centred in Riad, Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, by strengthening missions there. The Kuwaiti mission will be closed down.

It was decided on 14 June that the Harare mission will be closed down at the end of July, 2002. It is envisaged that the missions in Tripoli and Beirut will be closed down in early 2003 and the Kuwaiti mission a few months later.

More information: Maria Serenius, Deputy Director General, tel: +358-9-16056219