Finnish President Alexander Stubb heads to Germany for the Munich Security Conference on Friday and Saturday.
Nearly 50 heads of state and government are to attend, including the leaders of most European countries, the EU, Nato and the UN. The US will be represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Along with the conference’s basic theme of European security and defence, participants will discuss the fraught state of transatlantic relations and the multilateral system and Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, now entering its fifth year.
Stubb is to take part in several discussion and panel events, including a Nato-hosted roundtable on the future information environment. He will also hold one-to-one talks with various other leaders on the sidelines of the conference.
The president will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen, both from Stubb’s former National Coalition Party (NCP).
Orpo talks competitiveness, cheers on Olympic athletes
Stubb’s successor as NCP leader, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, meanwhile travels to Belgium on Thursday for an EU leaders’ retreat. The informal meeting, focusing on EU competitiveness, will be held at Alden Biesen castle in northeastern Belgium.
In a statement ahead of the meeting, Orpo said that the EU should reduce its "harmful dependencies," without providing any more specifics.
EU leaders are to discuss Europe’s future competitiveness with former Italian PM and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi, among others.
Orpo will also attend the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics, meeting Finnish athletes and cheering them on. The games run until 22 February in northern Italy.
