Director General, Political Department
The Government appointed Counsellor Petri Hakkarainen as Counsellor for Foreign Affairs as of 1 September 2023 and assigned him to serve as Director General of the Political Department for a fixed term from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2027.
Petri Hakkarainen is currently Director of Foreign and Security Policy at the Office of the President of the Republic, a position he has held since March 2018. Prior to that, he worked at Finland’s Embassies in Washington and Berlin and in the Unit for Policy Planning and Research at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. During his career at the Foreign Ministry, Hakkarainen has also worked at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy in Switzerland and at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany.
Hakkarainen joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in 2006. He holds two university degrees: Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Oxford and a Master of Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki.
Inquiries
Kirsti Pohjankukka, Deputy Director General for Human Resources, tel. +358 29 535 0038
The email addresses of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs are in the format [email protected]