Foreign Ministry's press releases

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Berlin on Thursday 17 October 2019 to attend the 20th anniversary of the Nordic Embassies complex. The event will be attended by the Foreign Ministers of the five Nordic countries and Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the 2019 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC on 17–19 October.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan Ayman Safadi will visit Finland on Friday 18 October and meet President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö and Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

The EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) will meet in Luxembourg on 14 October. Finland will be represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. The main theme of the discussions will be the latest developments in the situation in Syria. The meeting will be followed by an informal lunch with Ukraine’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Vadym Prystaiko.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Brussels on 9 October. The Minister will speak at a seminar entitled Europe and Africa: Neighbours with a shared future – Investing in people, which is organised by Finland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union together with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Finnish Government will grant Finnfund a loan of EUR 210 million for further investment in climate projects in developing countries and for strengthening the position of women and girls. Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari made the decision about the loan, which is part of the Ministry’s development policy investments.

The Council reaffirmed its commitment to EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights by adopting, on October 7, supplementary negotiating directives aiming at thee swift resumption of negotiations with the Council of Europe.

In the Government’s budget proposal, EUR 1.256 billion is proposed for the Foreign Ministry’s main title of expenditure. This is EUR 120 million more than was allocated in the Budget for 2019. The growth is mainly due to appropriation increases in line with the Government Programme.

The XVII Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) Foreign Ministers' session will be held on 3 October in Umeå, Sweden. At the meeting, the two-year chairmanship of BEAC will be handed over from Sweden to Norway.

On 3 October, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Umeå, Sweden, to attend the EU Arctic Forum. The forum is co-organised by the European Commission and Sweden.