Photographer Somali Times/Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Pekka Haavisto meets shady Somalia President Hassan Sheikh
By YLE News
Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Pekka Haavisto was in Mogadishu on Friday to discuss Somalia’s support of the international community in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Read: Why is Somalia an unfortunate country?
Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Green) on Friday visited Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, where he met with President of Somalia Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, as well as other key ministers.
Read: Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh history of corruption 2012-2017
Read: Somalia’s president Hassan Sheikh history of corruption 2012-2017
“I communicated to the Somalian state leaders the importance of Somalia supporting the international community in its efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Haavisto said in a foreign ministry statement.
Read: Why is Somalia an unfortunate country?
In addition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, bilateral relations between Finland and Somalia were also on the agenda, as well as the political and peace processes in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, according to the foreign ministry.
“The Somali diaspora in Finland is doing extremely valuable work in reconstructing Somalia and promoting relations between our countries,” Haavisto added.
Somali is Finland’s fifth biggest language group. Somalis initially arrived as civil war refugees in the early 1990s. Today Finland is home to some 20,000 Somali speakers, while around 18 percent of the community is born in Finland.
The All Points North podcast recently spoke with journalist Wali Hashi about the Somali community’s involvement in Finnish politics: