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10.6.2026 | Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will meet Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi, India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the United Arab Emirates’ Minister of State Lana Nusseibeh on 10–12 June.

13.6.2025 | Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen will meet Prime Cabinet Secretary of Kenya Musalia Mudavadi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Benin Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica Arnoldo André Tinoco and Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Thailand Russ Jalichandra in connection with the Kultaranta Talks on 16–17 June.

7.6.2024 | Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio will visit Ethiopia and Kenya on 10–14 June.

13.6.2025 | I samband med Gullrandadiskussionerna den 16–17 juni träffar utrikesminister Elina Valtonen Kenyas premiärminister och utrikesminister Musalia Mudavadi, Benins utrikesminister Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Costa Ricas utrikesminister Arnoldo André Tinoco och Thailands vice utrikesminister Russ Jalichandra.

5.4.2023 | Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto will visit Nairobi, Kenya, from 6 to 7 April. He will meet Kenya’s Minister of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Alfred Mutua, leaders of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other international organisations, and representatives of civil society. Among the topics of the meetings are Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bilateral relations between Finl...

3.11.2022 | According to Ambassador of Finland to Nairobi Pirkka Tapiola, Kenya is leading the way for economic and regional development in Eastern Africa. Kenya is now on the brink of new beginnings after presidential elections that were exceptionally peaceful.

30.1.2023 | Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä will lead a Team Finland visit to Tanzania and Kenya from 30 January to 3 February 2023 to promote exports and internationalisation of companies. The accompanying business delegation will include experts from the education, digitalisation and environmental technology sectors.

25.11.2021 | Finland and Kenya are cooperating to reduce violence against women and girls in Kenya, where gender-based violence has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. With Finland’s support, Kenya also aims to increase the number of women in leadership positions.

7.6.2024 | Utrikeshandels- och utvecklingsminister Ville Tavio besöker Etiopien och Kenya den 10-14 juni.

5.4.2023 | Utrikesminister Pekka Haavisto reser till Nairobi den 6–7 april. Han ska bland annat träffa Kenyas utrikesminister Alfred Mutua, ledningen för FN:s miljöprogram UNEP och andra internationella organisationer samt företrädare för civilsamhället. På agendan står Rysslands anfallskrig mot Ukraina, de bilaterala relationerna mellan Finland och Kenya samt regionala frågor som rör Afrikas horn, såsom fred och säkerhet, ungas delaktighet i fredsprocesserna samt miljö- och klimatfrågor.

30.1.2023 | Näringsminister Mika Lintilä avlägger ett Team Finland-besök till Tanzania och Kenya 30.1–3.2.2023 för att främja företagens export och internationalisering i företagen. Med på resan är en företagsdelegation inom utbildning, digitalisering och miljöteknik.

3.11.2022 | Enligt Finlands ambassadör i Nairobi Pirkka Tapiola leder Kenya den ekonomiska och regionala utvecklingen i östra Afrika. Nu befinner sig Kenya i en ny situation efter ett historiskt sett lugnt presidentval.

25.11.2021 | Finland och Kenya har inlett samarbete för att minska våldet mot kvinnor och flickor i Kenya, där det könsbaserade våldet har ökat under coronapandemin. Med Finlands stöd strävar Kenya också efter att öka antalet kvinnor i ledande ställning.

7.7.2026 | The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has received approximately 2,200 seasonal work visa applications this year for the purpose of wild-berry picking in Finland. To date, a majority of the applications have been processed, approximately 1,600 applications in total. The processing has revealed indications of a risk of worker exploitation, as well as shortcomings in employers’ compliance with their statutory obligations. The majority of the applications, approximately 1,400, have been refused.

16.6.2026 | President of the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Alvaro Lario will visit Helsinki on 16–17 June. The topics on the agenda are Finland’s cooperation with IFAD and global food security.

10.3.2026 | The 2026 call for applications for the Joint Innovation Facility (JIF) funding is now open. JIF is designed to strengthen digital, climate-positive innovation activity. The funding will support the expansion of market-ready, digitally enabled innovations through cross-border partnerships.

8.12.2025 | The seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly UNEA, the world’s highest-level decision-making body for matters related to the environment, will take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 8 to 12 December 2025. The theme of the session is ‘Advancing sustainable solutions for a resilient planet’. Finland’s UNEA delegation in Nairobi will be led by Minister of Climate and the Environment Sari Multala.

3.10.2025 | At the presidential session on 3 October, the President of the Republic appointed non-resident Ambassadors to Uganda and Monaco.

25.11.2025 | Prime Minister Petteri Orpo represented Finland at the seventh EU-African Union (AU) Summit in Luanda, Angola on 24 and 25 November. The summit was attended by heads of state or government from both continents and by President of the European Council António Costa and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen from the European side.

14.8.2025 | At its session on Thursday 14 August, the Government appointed Timo Olkkonen as the new Deputy Director General of the Department for Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

25.4.2025 | At the presidential session on 25 April, the President of the Republic appointed the following persons to serve as heads of missions: Okko-Pekka Salmimies, Bern; Pekka Voutilainen, Hanoi; Jukka Siukosaari, Copenhagen; Riina-Riikka Heikka, Nairobi; Olli Kantanen, Stockholm; Eevamari Laaksonen, Pristina; Minna Laajava, Los Angeles.

18.1.2024 | The budget reductions set out in the Government Programme will focus especially on region and country-specific development cooperation. The Country Programmes with Afghanistan, Kenya, Mozambique and Myanmar will be discontinued during the government term. Reductions will also be made in multilateral cooperation, humanitarian assistance and development policy loans and investments.

23.2.2024 | The world’s highest-level decision-making body for matters related to the environment, the United Nations Environment Assembly UNEA, will convene at its sixth session in Nairobi, Kenya on 26 February–1 March. UNEA-6 will bring UN Member States and representatives of civil society groups, the scientific community and the private sector together to seek solutions to acute environmental challenges. Finland’s UNEA delegation will be led by Minister of Climate and the Environment Kai Mykkänen.

1.3.2023 | Finland’s new Special Envoy for Climate Change Kerstin Stendahl has been following international climate and environmental negotiations for nearly three decades. Stendahl has held leading positions in the Ministry of the Environment and in the United Nations, among other places.

5.12.2023 | The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will organise two side events and act as a partner in several other events at the UN Climate Conference COP28 in Dubai. The programme themes are sustainable food systems, climate change adaptation and low-carbon construction.

27.10.2023 | In 2024–2026, the higher education cooperation of Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs will prioritise teacher education, climate change and the circular economy, and food security. The Foreign Ministry grants just over EUR 6 million to the seven projects approved for the partnership programme.

11.11.2022 | The Ministry for Foreign Affairs will organise an induction course into development policy and development cooperation for journalists (Development Academy) in January 2023. A field visit to Kenya is included in the course. In addition, one or two journalists will have the opportunity to visit Somalia. The call for application is open from 11 to 30 November 2022.

7.10.2022 | The Horn of Africa is battling with a historic drought that threatens the lives of millions of people. More funding is urgently needed for both emergency relief and long-term solutions. Finland, too, has increased its support to the region.

31.5.2022 | The high-level UN meeting Stockholm+50 will be held in Stockholm, Sweden on 2–3 June 2022. The meeting will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first UN conference on the environment, assess the environmental actions taken in the past 50 years and present concrete recommendations to improve the state of the environment.

3.2.2023 | Somalia’s first Minister of Environment and Climate Change Khadija Mohamed Almakhzoumi visited Finland this week on the invitation of Minister Maria Ohisalo.

26.1.2023 | On 9 January, Director General Kauko Aaltomaa, who is on leave of absence from the Police Department of the Ministry of the Interior, took up his duties as Head of Mission of the European Union Capacity Building Mission in Somalia (EUCAP Somalia). EUCAP Somalia is a civilian crisis management mission under the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. Its tasks include promoting maritime security in Somalia and supporting the building of the country’s police and judicial administrations.

8.7.2022 | On 8 July, Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto appointed Member of Parliament Suldaan Said Ahmed as his Special Representative on Peace Mediation in the Horn of Africa. In his work as Foreign Minister’s Special Representative, Said Ahmed will focus on supporting peace processes.

1.9.2022 | Desertification is a wretched process that is caused by fertile soil becoming dry and impoverished and that eventually ruins the soil’s productivity completely. Soil that is unfit for cultivation is a major trigger for migration flows in Africa and the Middle East.

22.10.2021 | On Friday 22 October, the President of the Republic decided to appoint new non-resident ambassadors.

24.9.2021 | On Friday 24 September, the President of the Republic decided to appoint one new non-resident ambassador.

1.12.2021 | The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has granted EUR 17.82 million to international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) for 2022–2024. Support was granted to 11 international human rights organisations operating in developing countries, whose work focuses on four themes: ending impunity; supporting human rights defenders; strengthening the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights and addressing discriminatory practices; and business and human rights.

25.2.2022 | The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5.2) brings together nearly 200 Member States to launch the negotiations on a global plastics agreement. UNEA is the highest environmental decision-making body in the UN. The Finnish delegation in Nairobi, Kenya, is headed by State Secretary Terhi Lehtonen from the Ministry of the Environment.

22.4.2022 | International actors are focusing on life-saving measures in preparation for a conference on drought in the Horn of Africa arranged for 26 April. Half of the population of Somalia needs humanitarian support due to a drought affecting the entire country coupled with ongoing conflict.

9.12.2021 | The terms and conditions of Business Partnership Support for Finnish companies aiming for developing markets to change on 1 January 2022. Services offered to companies and the effectiveness of the programme will be developed during the new three-year programming period.

11.10.2021 | Did you know that you have collaborated with people living in Nepal, Somalia and Kenya and thus supported girls’ schooling, journalists’ training and job creation? You may be surprised, but that is all right. Development cooperation produces effective results, but we Finns know quite little about them. On 11 October, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will launch a campaign that will clarify the achievements of Finland’s development cooperation.