Under Secretary of State, Pertti Torstila, appointed Ambassador to Stockholm

Mr Pertti Torstila, Under Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, was today appointed the new Finnish Ambassador to Stockholm, Sweden, w.e.f. 1 October, 2002, by the president of the republic. Torstila has worked in his present capacity as the Under Secretary of State, Administration, since September 2000 during which time he has chaired working groups on the reform of the foreign service as well on the challenges of the foreign office, submitted as a report of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

Torstila was Director General for Political Affairs in 1996-2000 and chaired the influencial political committee of the EU during the Finnish presidency in 1999. Previously, he has worked as Head of the Finnish Delegation at the CSCE negotiations on military security in Vienna and as Ambassador to Hungary and Croatia. A foreign service officer since 1970, Torstila specialised early on in security policy and was a member of the preparatory negotiations team leading to the CSCE conference in Helsinki in 1975 and has served in many CSCE duties since then.

Curriculum vitae of Pertti Torstila