Press releases

The first Minister of the Environment and Climate Change of the Federal Republic of Somalia Khadija Mohamed Almakhzoumi visits Finland on 31 January–3 February 2023. The visit is on the invitation of the Finnish Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Maria Ohisalo. The purpose of the visit is to support the new ministry in starting its work.

Minister for Nordic Cooperation and Equality Thomas Blomqvist will attend a meeting of Ministers for Nordic Cooperation in Copenhagen on 31 January.

An increasingly tense international situation, prolonged conflicts, catastrophes exacerbated by climate change and the questioning of the justification for human rights are further increasing the need for a human rights based development policy.

This is FINLAND Magazine 2023–2024, a publication exploring Finland’s strengths and expertise, is now available in English. This year’s Magazine highlights some of the building blocks of a good life in Finland: nature, work, culture, renewable energy and innovation.

Press release, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Tallinn in Estonia and Riga in Latvia on 25 January.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 23 January. Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will represent Finland at the meeting.

In 2022, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the missions abroad provided consular services to a total of approximately 256,000 customers. The demand for advisory services, in particular, continued to grow. During the year, the ministry’s 24/7 service received more than 8,000 contacts in total.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has decided to temporarily close the Murmansk Office, which operates under the Consulate General in St. Petersburg.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will meet Denmark’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Lars Løkke Rasmussen in Helsinki on 20 January.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will be present at Matka Nordic Travel Fair, held at Messukeskus in Helsinki from 19 to 22 January. Finns are again interested in travelling abroad after the pandemic years.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will attend the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Minister Haavisto will be in Davos from 17 to 19 January and Minister Skinnari from 17 to 18 January.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari visits Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates on 16 January and attends the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

The Ministers met in Helsinki on 12 January.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari and Minister of the Interior Krista Mikkonen are visiting Kyiv, Ukraine, on 9 January. In Kyiv, the ministers are meeting Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration, Minister of Energy, Minister of Internal Affairs and the Mayor of Kyiv.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a security conference in Sälen, Sweden, on 8 January.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit the capital of Senegal, Dakar, from 2 to 3 January. In Dakar, he will meet Senegalese Foreign Minister Aïssata Tall Sall and other state leaders.

Finland is supporting the acute needs of Ukraine’s energy sector and green reconstruction through the new Green Recovery Programme with a total of EUR 5 million.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has submitted a report on Finland’s activities in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021 to Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

Finland supports UN agencies in their work to promote stability and human rights. Authoritarian states, conflicts, the food and climate crises and the COVID-19 pandemic are increasing inequality and weakening security and wellbeing worldwide.

The new year brings changes to the Act on the Making of Decisions Concerning the Provision of and Request for International Assistance, among others.

IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank Group, and Finland announces the establishment of the Finland-Latin America and the Caribbean Blended Finance Climate Fund.

Amendments to the Aliens Act will extend the use of a long-term visa known as a D visa. The amendments will contribute to promoting education-based and labour-based immigration and streamline entry procedures. The President of the Republic approved the amendments on 20 December.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has issued a Decree on Fees for Services Produced by the Foreign Service. The new decree will enter into force on 1 January 2023.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk will visit Finland from 18 to 19 December. He will meet Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto, who will be hosting the visit, and Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a virtual Nordic foreign ministers’ meeting in N5 format on 13 December. Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly will attend the meeting as a guest.

Finland will participate in the replenishment cycle of the African Development Fund and in the reinforcing of the Fund’s work in the coming years, especially with regard to climate change adaptation. The African Development Fund helps the poorest African countries in coping with the many coinciding crises and in recovering from them.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will lead a Team Finland trade mission to the State of Texas and visit Washington DC from 12 to 16 December.

The Belarusian opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, will visit Helsinki on 13 and 14 December, at the invitation of Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto.

EU Foreign ministers to meet in Brussels on Monday 12 December. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto to represent Finland at the meeting.

Finland will grant EUR 4.5 million in additional support to help Ukraine’s energy sector. The support will be used to address acute energy needs in schools, early education centres and hospitals and to develop the country’s energy efficiency in the longer term.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit the United States from 7 to 9 December.

Finland’s additional support will help the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) provide mobile health services, safe births and family planning for women who have been forced from their homes by the drought and food crisis in Somalia.

The Finnish Government submitted a proposal on Finland’s accession to NATO to Parliament on 5 December. The consultation on the draft proposal generated about 1,600 responses. The Government reviewed the proposal based on the responses and supplemented the rationale with specifications concerning cooperation between the Government and the President of the Republic, Parliament’s role in the handling of NATO matters and in making decisions on them, and the status of Åland Islands under international law.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has concluded the cooperation negotiations it initiated at the Service Centre for Entry Permits in Kouvola in October 2022. As a result, 17 public-service employment relationships will be terminated on a voluntary basis.

Almost half of the respondents to an international country image survey indicated that their perception of Finland improved during the last year. Finland’s NATO membership process has greatly contributed to increasing Finland’s visibility abroad and to improving perceptions of Finland.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which will be held in Łódź, Poland, on 30 November–1 December. Poland holds the OSCE Chairpersonship in 2022.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto visited Kyiv, Ukraine, on 28 November together with Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers. In Kyiv, the foreign ministers met the President and the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, among others, and reaffirmed their countries’ firm support to Ukraine.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend a meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Bucharest from 29 to 30 November.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs requests opinions on the draft Decree of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on Fees for Services Produced by the Foreign Service in 2023. The consultation round will be open until 7 December 2022. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs proposes an increase of EUR 20 to the fee for the EU Emergency Travel Document (ETD) issued to EU citizens.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari will visit London on 24 November. Minister Skinnari will meet the United Kingdom’s Minister of State at the Department for International Trade Greg Hands and Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Andrew Mitchell.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto will visit Paris on 23 November. He will meet Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France Catherine Colonna and President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the French National Assembly Jean-Louis Bourlanges.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will attend the Manama Dialogue organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Bahrain from 18 to 19 November. He will have a number of bilateral meetings during the visit.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs together with its partners will organise a Crisis Management NOW event focusing on crisis management and peacebuilding. The event will take place in the Wanha Satama conference centre in Katajanokka on Tuesday 29 November. It will be open to all and free of charge.

More than half of Russians still have a positive attitude towards Finland, according to a country image survey carried out by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. However, the proportion of Russians who are positive towards Finland has dropped compared to previous years. Finland and Finnishness are associated with nature, quality and a high standard of living. The best-known Finns in Russia are Ville Haapasalo, Mika Häkkinen and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto has convened an international conference to discuss gender equality promotion and feminist foreign policy. The conference will take place at the House of the Estates in Helsinki on 16 November. The conference aims to share best practices on the content and means of foreign policy that promotes gender equality. Another aim is to encourage more discussion about feminist foreign policy in Finland. Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto commissioned a review on how Finland’s foreign policy has succeeded in promoting gender equality.

Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade of Finland Mr Ville Skinnari will lead a trade mission to South Africa and Namibia from 14 to 18 November. The programme of the visit includes meetings with representatives of South African and Namibian governments, central banks and businesses.

EU foreign ministers will convene in Brussels on 14 November. Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will represent Finland at the meeting.

The Government endorsed a report on Nordic cross-border barriers in its plenary session on 10 November. The report presents Finnish efforts to remove and prevent cross-border barriers during the government term and highlights barriers, which the Finnish authorities have been working to remove. In addition, the report gives general information about the removal of cross-border barriers by, for example, listing key bodies and their roles.

Most of the people who need humanitarian assistance are living amid crises that have gone on for years. Altogether 325 million people in 69 countries need assistance. Finland is granting EUR 13.6 million in humanitarian assistance to help especially the most vulnerable people.