Foreign Ministry's press releases

Withdrawal from of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, known as the Ottawa Convention, requires a government proposal. Comments on the draft proposal may be given until 16 May 2025.

The official development assistance (ODA) declined in 2024 both in Finland and globally. Ukraine, which is heavily affected by Russia’s war of aggression, is the largest recipient of Finland’s ODA for the third consecutive year.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Luxembourg on 14 April. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will represent Finland at the meeting.

According to preliminary data, a total of 5,291 votes were cast in advance in the 2025 county elections and 8,310 votes in the municipal elections at Finnish missions abroad. In the dual elections, a total of 180 votes were cast on board Finnish vessels. In the 2022 county elections, 2,923 advance votes were cast, and about a hundred crew members cast their vote on board ships. In the 2021 municipal elections, 2,693 advance votes were cast, and over a hundred crew members voted on board ships.

Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will visit Washington DC on 10 April 2025. She will meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

A Finnish-Ukrainian cooperation project will improve the transparency and digitalisation of the Ukrainian tax administration and its capacity to manage and implement reforms. The project will also support the fight against corruption and Ukraine's EU accession.

Last autumn, the Nordic Council called on the governments in the region to update the Helsinki Treaty, which governs Nordic cooperation, by adding new areas of cooperation and examining the contractual status of Faroe Islands, Greenland and Åland.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will attend an extraordinary meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, in its trade configuration, in Luxembourg on 7 April 2025. The meeting will focus on the EU’s trade relations with the United States and China.

Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will meet Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard in Stockholm on 8 April.

Finland provides humanitarian assistance to Myanmar. The damage caused by the recent severe earthquake in Myanmar exacerbates the already challenging humanitarian situation.