Minister for Foreign Affairs Soini to visit Iceland

Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will visit Iceland on 13-15 January.

The visit will be hosted by Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson. During his visit, Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini will also meet with President of Iceland Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament of Iceland (Alþingi) Áslaug Arna Sigurbjörnsdóttir, as well as members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.  

The discussions will focus on the bilateral relations between Finland and Iceland and on topical international questions. Arctic issues will also feature prominently in the discussions. Iceland will take over as Chair of the Arctic Council from Finland in May.

During its term as Chair, Finland’s main priority has been to accelerate the implementation of concrete measures to reduce black carbon emissions. Finland is happy to note that Iceland is committed to pursuing efforts to cut black carbon emissions.

“My main message to Iceland is that they can rely on support from Finland in preparing their chairmanship programme. The Arctic region is shared by all of us, and we all have to work together on its behalf,” Minister Soini emphasises.

Soini will also visit the University of Akureyri where he will speak about Arctic cooperation and discuss Arctic matters with experts. Akureyri is a centre for Arctic research in Iceland and the second-largest urban centre in the country after the Reykjavík metropolitan area.

Inquiries: Riikka Taivassalo, Special Adviser to the Foreign Minister, tel. +358 40 590 4581, and Ann-Christine Krank, Counsellor, Unit for Northern Europe, tel. + 358 295 350 111.

The Foreign Ministry’s email addresses are in the format [email protected].