President Sauli Niinistö heads to New York next week for the opening of the UN General Assembly.
On Monday he will address a summit on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals hosted by Secretary-General António Guterres. During his four-day visit, Niinistö will address the General Assembly on 20 September and hold various bilateral meetings.
A statement released by his office on Wednesday did not specify who Niinistö will meet with on the sidelines of the UN events.
This will mark Niinistö’s final appearance at the event as president, since his term ends early next year. He has addressed the gathering every September since taking office in 2012, delivering his speech virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic.
This time, the president will be accompanied by his spouse Jenni Haukio. She will take part in a discussion on Nordic literature with author Neil Gaiman and Icelandic First Lady Eliza Reid on 20 September at the New York Public Library. Haukio and Reid, both published authors, took part in a literary event in Reykjavík last year.
Valtonen and Tavio in delegation
The official delegation also includes Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) and Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio (Finns).
Tavio, a eurosceptic and cryptocurrency investor, is one of several Finns Party ministers whose past comments linked to far-right views have come under scrutiny since taking office in June.
On 3 July, the daily Helsingin Sanomat reported that Tavio has repeatedly referred in parliamentary speeches to replacement theory, which the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) has identified as a “significant ideological motivation of far-right terrorists".
That same day, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns), who oversees Supo, distanced herself from the conspiracy theory and her old social media posts referencing it.
