Developments in the FIIA, autumn 2012

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Song Tao visited FIIA

Dr. Song Tao, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of People’s Republic of China, participated in a high-level academic seminar at FIIA on 29 October. Vice Minister’s talk on EU-China relations was followed by a discussion.

FIIA Vice_Minister_of_Foreign_Affairs_of_People's_Republic_of_China_Song_Tao

Kone Foundation grants funding for the Eilen Archive

Kone Foundation has granted 25.000€ for the further development of Eilen Archive, the online archive of Finnish Foreign Policy. At the moment, the archive consists of speeches related to Finnish foreign policy and chronology detailing the most significant events in Finnish foreign policy since 1973.

4th German-Nordic-Baltic Forum

On 27-28 September, the fourth German-Nordic-Baltic Forum took place. The conference was entitled “EU Responses to external challenges as seen from Germany, Poland, Nordic and Baltic countries and the EU neighbourhood” and it led to a most fruitful exchange of ideas and opinions among the stakeholders of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The Forum took place at the premises of FIIA in Helsinki and was organised by the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP) in cooperation with FIIA, with generous support from the German Federal Foreign Office and the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

Staff News

In February-March, Dr. Anaïs Marin will take part in a visiting researcher exchange with the Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies (OSW). During her 2-month stay at OSW, Marin will collaborate with researchers from the Russian department as well as her homologue Belarus desk.

The Student Union of University of Helsinki (HYY) has awarded the prize for the Best International Teacher of the Year 2012 to Bart Gaens. Dr. Gaens is a Docent of Japanese Studies at the University of Helsinki and a researcher in FIIA’s Global Security Programme.