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19.1.2024 | In 2023, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the missions abroad provided consular services to approximately 244,000 customers. The demand for advisory services remained high. Over the course of the year, the Ministry’s 24/7 service was contacted around 8,000 times in total.

28.2.2023 | Over the weekend and on Monday, Finland sent more material assistance to the areas hit by the earthquake in Türkiye. Some of the assistance will be delivered from Türkiye to Syria. There is still a great need for material assistance, such as emergency accommodation and heating, in the region.

7.2.2023 | Finland will be sending EUR 1 million in humanitarian assistance to Türkiye and Syria through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The support will be used to provide food, shelter, medical supplies and psychosocial support to people who lost their homes in the two countries.

31.10.2022 | Finland has sent two international civil protection experts to Havana, Cuba, to support the training of local urban search and rescue personnel. Having identified a lack of expertise among Havana’s local authorities in conducting rescue from collapsed structures, Cuba requested international assistance to train urban search and rescue workers. The experts left Finland on Monday 31 October.

6.9.2022 | Finland has sent an expert in international civil protection to Pakistan to assist in coordinating humanitarian aid related to monsoon floods. The expert left Finland on Tuesday 6 September.

16.2.2023 | Under-Secretary of State Pasi Hellman from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will attend the pledging conference of the Education Cannot Wait fund in Geneva 16 to 17 February. The fund supports education in humanitarian and prolonged crises. Finland will grant two million euros to the Education Cannot Wait fund this year. In 2020–2022, Finland supported the fund by a total of EUR 6 million.

6.2.2023 | Finland is rapidly sending a team of experts to Türkiye to assist in rescue efforts following a major earthquake. The experts will be deployed through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

1.2.2023 | Member of Parliament Suldaan Said Ahmed visited the Horn of Africa region in January. It was his third visit as Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto’s Special Representative on Peace Mediation. “Involving young people in peace processes and taking into account the diaspora from the region are important themes for me,” Said Ahmed says.

21.1.2022 | Core funding to international humanitarian organisations is a rapid and effective way to respond to sudden-onset natural disasters and protracted crises. Finland’s 27.5-million-euro funding will help UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC to operate in areas where people need help, and to plan their operations flexibly.

5.9.2022 | Minister of the Interior Krista Mikkonen will attend a coordination meeting convened by the European Commission and the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU on Monday 5 September. The meeting will discuss preparedness for wildfires caused by the climate crisis. The meeting will be attended by ministers responsible for the internal security in the EU Member States and senior officials.

15.2.2022 | The second year of the pandemic was busy for the consular assistance services provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Finland's missions abroad, and the number of customers continued to increase. In 2021, the Ministry and the missions abroad provided consular services to a total of 255,000 customers.

26.3.2021 | More than 200 million people across the globe need humanitarian assistance due to conflicts, natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. The provision of humanitarian assistance is one of the most concrete ways of responding to crises and disasters. Finland grants a total of EUR 69.6 million to humanitarian work carried out by the UN organizations, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, and Finnish civil society organisations.

9.3.2023 | Finns are once again actively travelling abroad. Over the years, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has been reminding travellers of things to take into account when travelling abroad to make sure their trip runs as smoothly as possible.

29.7.2022 | By decision of the Ministry of the Interior, Finland is sending 50 rescue workers to Greece to help manage wildfires. The Emergency Services Academy is the employer of the posted experts.

9.11.2022 | Recent crises underline the importance of development cooperation as a key instrument of foreign and security policy, according to Finland’s Development Policy Results Report submitted to Parliament on 9 November.

14.6.2022 | On 14–16 June 2022, Finland will serve for the second time in succession as president of the session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Representatives from more than 180 countries are expected to attend the conference in New York. A large number of representatives of civil society organisations and UN agencies, dedicated to promoting the rights of persons with disabilities, will also attend the conference.

22.11.2022 | Finland’s Ambassador for Climate Change Jan Wahlberg says that while the Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt has been criticised for its weak results, progress was nevertheless made to help the world’s poorest countries stricken by climate disasters. Future conferences of the parties will decide on the structure of the fund and its sources of finance.

19.8.2021 | Finland will provide EUR 3 million through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR to help Afghan refugees. On the World Humanitarian Day celebrated today, the crises in Afghanistan and Haiti remind us of the global humanitarian distress.

14.4.2022 | The Ministry of the Interior has decided to send two experts to Poland and Slovakia to assist in coordinating the humanitarian assistance needed by people fleeing Ukraine. The experts left Finland on Wednesday evening. The Emergency Services Academy Finland is the employer of the posted experts.

7.3.2023 | on March 7 2023 in Doha