Pekka Haavisto - Lennart Meri Conference

Pekka Haavisto

Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Pekka Haavisto has served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2019. He was a member of Parliament in 1983–1995 and returned to Parliament in 2007. In 1995–1999, he served as Minister of Development and the Environment and in 2013–2014 as Minister for International Development. In 1993–1995 and in 2018–2019, he was party leader of the Greens in Finland. He has also served several years as a member of the Helsinki City Council. He stood as a candidate in the presidential election in Finland in 2012 and in 2018. He has gained wide experience of various areas of foreign policy, for example, while chairing the UN Environment Programme Task Forces on the environmental impacts of war in the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, the occupied Palestinian territory and Sudan. He has also worked as the EU special representative for Sudan and Darfur, special advisor for the UN in the Darfur peace process, and special representative to the Minister for Foreign Aff airs in African crises.