New Finnish foreign minister visits Sweden, Estonia

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Finland's New Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen visited Sweden and Estonia on her first official foreign trips after taking office earlier this week.

Valtonen met her Swedish counterpart Tobias Billstrom in Stockholm on Wednesday before heading to Tallinn for a meeting with top Estonian diplomat Margus Tsahkna.

"Very successful first visit to Sweden," she said on Twitter after meeting Billstrom, adding that Sweden is Finland's "closest partner" and that she is looking forward to promoting bilateral relations.

It is important that Sweden becomes a NATO member before the military alliance's July summit in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania​​​​​​​, Valtonen added.

Regarding her meeting with Tsahkna on Thursday, she tweeted: "A very good first visit to Tallinn today. Very useful to exchange views on current foreign and security policy issues ... Bilateral relations with Estonia are excellent."

Finland’s conservative National Coalition Party, the winner of April’s general election, formed the government on Tuesday. Petteri Orpo has replaced Sanna Marin as the new prime minister.​​​​​​​