Current Affairs

The Joint Statement was delivered in Brussels on 27 November by the Benelux and Nordic Countries: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

IFAD's Associate Vice-President Satu Santala has been appointed as Nordic Development Fund's Managing Director.

Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will attend a meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on 28–29 November.

Finland’s Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will attend a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in its trade configuration in Brussels on 27 November 2023. The trade ministers will discuss the preparations for the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, the EU’s trade agreement with Chile and the EU–US trade relations. The ministers will also discuss the EU’s ongoing bilateral trade negotiations.

Finland’s Ambassador to Moscow Antti Helanterä visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation at his own request on 24 November to inform on the Finnish Government's decision of 22 November 2023 to temporarily close the border crossing points of Kuusamo, Salla and Vartius.

Finland will grant EUR 3 million in additional support to improve food security in Ukraine. The funding will be used to support Ukrainian exports of grain to countries where food security is adversely affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some of the funds will be used to help clear mines in rural Ukraine to restart agricultural production.

According to a recent evaluation, long-term commitment and funding for development cooperation in the education sector should be guaranteed to maintain Finland's current reputation and the effectiveness of development cooperation.

International recruitments to and candidacies for multilateral organisations, coordinated by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, are an integral part of Finland's foreign and security policy. Multilateral cooperation makes Finland a more influential player globally than its size might suggest. In autumn 2023, several Finnish experts were successfully recruited to leadership positions important for Finland.

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will travel to New Delhi, India, with a Finnish business delegation on 22–23 November. During his visit, Minister Tavio will meet with Indian ministers and business representatives and attend the India Nordic-Baltic Business Conclave.

The United Nation’s independent Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Farida Shaheed will visit Finland on 20–29 November. This is the first country visit to the Nordic countries under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur established in 1998. The aim of the visit is to assess how educational rights are observed in Finland.

The EU Member States can impose authorisation requirements on exports of items included in other Member States’ national control lists.

Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland, together with Åland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland are engaged in official Nordic cooperation within the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council. The exceptional times we have been living in recent years have emphasised the importance of Nordic cooperation.

Director-General Fernando Arias of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is visiting Finland from 15 to 16 November at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen.

The Legal Service of Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs has completed a legal analysis of the special status of Åland under international law and of legal questions associated with Åland. The analysis is now available in Finnish and Swedish on the Foreign Ministry’s website.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 13 November. Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will represent Finland at the meeting.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs invites comments on a draft government proposal on amending the Act on Export Control of Dual-use Items and chapter 46 of the Criminal Code. Comments are requested via the Lausuntopalvelu.fi consultation service by Friday 22 December 2023.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise an induction course into development policy and development cooperation for journalists in January–February 2024, with a special focus on the links between trade and development. A field visit to Zambia is included in the course. The call for applications is open from 10 to 24 November 2023.

On 9 November 2023, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a judgment on a case concerning the right to a fair hearing. The Court ruled that there had been no violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (right to a fair hearing).

Former President of the Republic of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ambassador and State Secretary of the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Martti Ahtisaari passed away in Helsinki on 16 October 2023 at the age of 86. He was born on 23 June 1937 in Vyborg.