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Valtonen meets with European foreign ministers, Tavio and Stubb head to Africa

Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) meets with 10 other European foreign ministers while Foreign Trade Minister Ville Tavio (Finns) visits Morocco. The president heads to Tanzania and Kenya next month.

Three women with business attire and serious expressions stand talking at a conference.
Elina Valtonen (on the right) spoke with her German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (on the left) and Slovenia's Tanja Fajon in Luxembourg two weeks ago. Valtonen and Baerbock meet again on Monday in Denmark. Image: EPA-EFE
  • Yle News

Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (NCP) heads to Denmark on Monday for a two-day gathering of foreign ministers from the five Nordic countries, the three Baltic states as well as Poland, France and Germany.

According to a Foreign Ministry handout, the meeting will focus on support for Ukraine as well as European security and defence cooperation and other current foreign policy issues.

"The already close partnership between Finland and the Nordic and Baltic countries has deepened. I am also pleased that we are in close dialogue with Poland, France and Germany within the Nordic-Baltic Cooperation," Valtonen said in the press release.

The Nordic-Baltic Cooperation (NB8) meeting will be held on the island of Bornholm. The small, strategically located island is in the Baltic Sea off the south coast of Sweden, which formerly ruled it.

This year Denmark chairs the NB8 format, which dates back to 1992, shortly after the three Baltic countries regained their independence. Since 2000, it has been known as the Nordic-Baltic Eight.

Stubb, Tavio to Africa

Meanwhile Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio (Finns) will visit Morocco with a Finnish business delegation starting Monday. Accompanying him on the three-day trip to the North African state will be representatives of corporations such as Nokia, Vaisala and Wärtsilä.

In a statement, Tavio noted that Morocco is preparing to co-host the FIFA World Cup in 2030, adding that "this involves several infrastructure projects for which Finnish businesses have excellent solutions to offer".

Separately, President Alexander Stubb’s office announced that he will visit East Africa in mid-May. The president will make state visits to Kenya on 12–14 May and to Tanzania on 14–16 May, marking the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Finland and the two countries.

Last autumn, Stubb issued a rare public rebuke of Tavio after he decided single-handedly that Finland would quit the UN-led Alliance for Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery in Ukraine.

In early April, opposition MP and former Minister of Social Affairs and Health Tuula Haatainen (SDP) called in Parliament for Finland to reconsider that decision and join the alliance.