Foreign Ministry's press releases

On 25–26 October, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Foreign Minister’s meeting of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council in Tromsø. The meeting will end Norway’s Chairmanship, after which the Chairmanship will be handed over to Finland for the next two years.

On 19 October, Administrator of the US Agency for International Development Samantha Power and Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari announced their dedication to robust collaboration on efforts to advance economic productivity, gender equality and human rights in developing countries through inclusive digitalisation.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit the United States on 18–21 October.

Finland bears its responsibility as part of the climate finance pledge of the Paris Agreement. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Finland will announce support for adaptation measures in developing countries in particular. The COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference will be held in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November 2021.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Luxembourg on Monday 18 October. The main items on the agenda will be the EU’s Eastern Partnership, Ethiopia, the Persian Gulf and Nicaragua. Topical issues on the agenda will include Afghanistan, climate diplomacy, Tunisia and the Western Balkans.

The three-year term 2022-2024 is Finland’s first full membership in the Human Rights Council. Finland will continue its long-term work to promote universal human rights.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed a working group to assess the need to amend the Act on the Making of Decisions Concerning the Provision of and Request for International Assistance (418/2017). The working group will prepare the necessary legislative amendments based on the lessons learned from the evacuation operation in Afghanistan.

The Centre of Expertise, newly established under the Finnish National Agency for Education (EDUFI), will strengthen Finland’s role in resolving the global learning crisis. The Centre will facilitate the deployment of Finnish education sector expertise in development cooperation and support efforts to strengthen equitable and inclusive quality education in developing countries. At the same time, it will also facilitate the engagement of Finnish actors in the education sector in development cooperation assignments.

The 16th meeting of the Finnish-Russian Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation will be held in Helsinki on 14 October 2021. The Commission is co-chaired by Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari and Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov. The meeting will address issues related to business environment in Finland and Russia, potential sectors of cooperation, and current topics of the Commission’s working groups. The ministers will also meet representatives of Finnish and Russian companies.

Did you know that you have collaborated with people living in Nepal, Somalia and Kenya and thus supported girls’ schooling, journalists’ training and job creation? You may be surprised, but that is all right. Development cooperation produces effective results, but we Finns know quite little about them. On 11 October, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will launch a campaign that will clarify the achievements of Finland’s development cooperation.