Finland Times

 

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä addresses delegates during a donor conference entitled 'Supporting Syria & The Region' at the QEII centre in central London on February 4, 2016. Photo AFP-LEHTIKUVA

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä on Thursday announced that Finland will respond to the needs in Syria and its neighbouring countries and pledged 25 million euros for the current year, said an official press release.

 

“Finland wants to take part in helping the people and the society of Syria and its neighbouring countries. Finland will direct its support to areas where we can make a real difference,” the prime minister told the fourth International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria held in London. 

 

“The focus areas of our support will be education, women, innovations, and ICT,” he said, adding that the resources would be channelled from the foreign ministry’s budget. 

 

About 40 other heads of state or government took part in the conference where the leaders promised to support Syria by a total of more than USD 6b in 2016 and USD 5b in 2017-2020. 

 

According to the UN secretary general, this is the biggest sum ever pledged in any single conference.

 

“For us, our emphasis is on education for all children, on improving women’s rights and on employment. We are looking forward to innovative partnerships to boost, for example, youth employment,” Sipilä said.

 

Sipilä held bilateral negotiations with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Iraq Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, the current holder of the EU presidency. 

 

Young Syrian refugees stand at the Azraq refugee camp in northern Jordan on January 30, 2016. File Photo AFP-Lehtikuva.

He also briefly discussed UK’s forthcoming EU referendum with Prime Minister David Cameron.

 

Sipilä also held an informal meeting with the Nordic prime ministers and discussed various issues, particularly the present migration situation. 

 

“It was a very good discussion about migration, which is topical at the moment. The Nordic countries are a family and we work well together. Exchanging ideas and information on a regular basis guarantees that we can find solutions to our common challenges together,” noted the prime minister.

 

“Today we talked a lot about how to ensure proper integration and about border questions. It is important to ensure that the current challenges do not curb Nordic cooperation, which is ongoing for instance in our endeavours to dismantle trade barriers between our countries,” he added.