Current Affairs

Finnish missions abroad promote measures that advance Finland’s sustainable growth and help Finnish companies to succeed in international markets.

An informal meeting of EU foreign ministers (Gymnich) will be held in Kranj, Slovenia, on 2–3 September 2021. Finland’s representative at the meeting will be Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. After the meeting, on 3–4 September, Minister Haavisto will visit Tallinn.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit Japan on 1–5 September 2021. Minister Skinnari will attend the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic Games as a representative of Finnish state leaders and have meetings with Japanese ministers and representatives of Japanese companies.

The project was launched in 2018 and since then, for example, providers of teacher training have been trained, learning materials have been produced for speakers of Ukrainian as a second language, and a digital tool has been developed. At the start, the Ukrainian Government proposed cooperation to Finland as Finland's expertise in the education sector is widely recognised and appreciated.

Finland’s relief efforts in Afghanistan were complemented late on the night of Friday 27 August, when the employees of the company responsible for the security of Finnish Embassy personnel were successfully led inside the gates of Kabul Airport. The total number of these employees and their family members is 83 persons. Assisted by US troops, the group managed to get on a flight away from Kabul early this morning.

Finland is the first country in the world to publish a National Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security. Finland's National Action Plan was published on 20 August and it is available in Finnish, Swedish and English. An easy-to-read version of the text will be published later.

Today, on 27 August 2021, the President of the Republic approved the amendment to the Annex to the Decree of the President of the Republic on the Locations of Finland’s Diplomatic Missions and the Provision of Consular Services in the Foreign Service. The amendment will enter into force at the beginning of October.

Finland ended its relief efforts in Kabul as planned on Thursday 26 August. Both the Foreign Ministry’s relief team and the Defence Forces’ unit tasked with safeguarding the efforts have now left Afghanistan. We will continue to provide consular assistance through other means to the extent possible.

Finland suspended its development cooperation with Afghanistan after Taliban took control of the country. However, the results of development cooperation in the past 20 years will not be lost, says Senior Specialist Merja Mäkelä.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has recruited 20 new senior specialists in international business to work in 16 different countries. The intention is to increase Finnish exports in important export markets and, in particular, to help small- and medium-sized companies to work globally.

Yannick Glemarec, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), will visit Finland from 30 to 31 August.

Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Helga Schmid will visit Helsinki on Friday 27 August at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto. Schmid will also have discussions with President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö.

At an extraordinary meeting on 24 August, the Finnish Government decided to complement its earlier decisions and announced that Finland could admit to the country a maximum of 45 additional Afghan former employees of the Finnish Embassy in Kabul together with their families. Finland can also admit a new group of persons representing security sector employees together with their families, totalling a maximum of 83 persons.

On 25–27 August, the Europe Forum 2021 in Turku will gather Finnish opinion-makers and citizens to discuss Finland's role in Europe. The event will offer a wide range of discussions on the future of the EU and the position of Finland and the EU in the changing world order. During the Forum, the Ministers and public officials of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will contribute as speakers to events organised by other parties. In addition, on Friday 27 August the Foreign Ministry’s Europe Information will organise a discussion event on the future of an open Europe.

Excellencies, Distinguished Colleagues, It really feels good to be Finnish right now. Our team may not have brought home gold from the Olympics in Tokyo, but our efforts to tackle the Covid crisis are surely worth a few medals. This is a good opportunity for me to extend my thanks to you for your hard work. This is also a chance to for us to take a look ahead together.

The United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF will establish two innovation hubs in Finland. The hubs are the latest addition to the UN competence cluster built in Finland in recent years by UNOPS and UN Global Pulse.

Distinguished Ambassadors, dear colleagues and friends, When I spoke on this forum a year ago, I truly hoped that the COVID-19 pandemic had abated by now and that life had already started to normalise. We are not there yet, and we are meeting remotely, again.

Distinguished Ambassadors, Ladies and Gentlemen, This year has shown very clearly the importance of foreign policy and the work of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I do not mean just the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan and the tasks related to it, but all the events of the past few months: the global response to the coronavirus crisis, international efforts to halt climate change, work to promote the Finnish economy on our key export markets and to strengthen our education and innovation profile, disarmament issues, human rights and development contributions to the world’s poorest countries.