Finland’s Africa Strategy

Abstract

The article analyzes Finland’s strategy towards Africa. The relevance of this topic does not raise doubts in the light of the growing interest not only of Finland, but also of the European Union as a whole in Africa, especially the countries of the Sahel. Finland’s strategy was adopted almost simultaneously with the EU’s strategy and can be considered as an integral part of it. The article analyzes the publicly available documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, which are relevant both to the policy of this northern country in relation to the continent as a whole and to individual African countries. The aim of the strategy is to set realistic but ambitious goals for Finland’s policy towards Africa, based on the common interests of Finland and African countries, to define the main directions of Finland’s policy towards Africa and to define concrete actions to achieve them. In addition, it is necessary to pay special attention to strengthening political and economic relations and expand cooperation in various forms. Thus, the research carried out can be useful for a better understanding of one of the most important directions of Finnish foreign policy today.

Keywords

• finland
• africa
• sahel
• strategy
• european union
• ministry of foreign affairs