The Ministry for Foreign Affairs

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs promotes the security and welfare of Finland and the Finns, and works for a secure and fair world.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs concentrates on foreign and security policy, trade policy and development policy as well as on significant foreign policy issues and international relations in general. The Ministry also assists other branches of government in the coordination of international affairs.

The Finnish Foreign Service – the Ministry and approximately one hundred diplomatic and consular missions – focuses on serving Finns, the Finnish economy and society at large, the country’s political leadership and Parliament.

The organisation of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Three of the members of the Government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo are responsible for matters that fall under the administration of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs:

  • Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen
  • Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio and
  • matters of Nordic cooperation Minister for Education Anna-Maja Henriksson.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs who is in charge of the government department. The Ministry's highest civil servants are the Secretary of State, who acts as the head of the Office of the Minister, and four Under-Secretaries of State.

The Foreign Ministry's organisation as a picture, the content explained on the page.

The duties of the Ministry are divided between eight departments. The Political Department, Department for International Trade, and Department for Development Policy are responsible for policy coordination.

Regional matters are handled by four departments: Department for Europe; Department for Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Department for the Americas and Asia; and Department for Africa and the Middle East.

The Department for Communications is the eighth department.

The Ministry's Roving Ambassadors are based in the units of the regional departments which are in charge of the geographical region of their field of responsibility.

Outside the departmental division are the following functions:

  • The Legal Service
  • Consular Services
  • Protocol Services
  • Administrative Services
  • Financial Management Service
  • Unit for Internal Audit
  • Unit for Policy Planning and Research
  • National Security Authority
  • Development Evaluation Unit.