Finland

Our relationship with Finland

Our relationship with Finland is warm and friendly. New Zealand and Finland share similar views on many international issues including trade, security, disarmament and the environment. As two small, independent democracies, we are natural partners and often share similar perspectives and priorities, particularly in the United Nations and the OECD. New Zealand and Finland’s diplomatic relationship was established in 1950.

Contact between New Zealand and Finland has existed since the early stages of European settlement in New Zealand, with some Finnish mariners settling in costal settlements. The main flow of migrants was in the 1950s and 1960s when the growing New Zealand pulp and paper industry imported Finnish technology.

Finland is a member of the Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform, a group initiated by New Zealand that works to encourage the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies. Finland is a partner in the Small Advanced Economies Initiative that New Zealand established, and it is also part of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions alongside New Zealand.

Finland is a world leader in innovation in many fields and there are opportunities for New Zealand to engage in such areas as forestry, green technologies, telecommunication, computing, vehicles, and mechanics.

As a member of the EU, Finland is connected to New Zealand through the EU- New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, the EU-New Zealand Partnership for Relations and Cooperation (the PARC), and through New Zealand’s associated country status in Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe which is the EU’s funding programme for research and innovation projects.  

Working Holiday Schemes

Information on Working Holiday Schemes(external link) is available on the Immigration New Zealand website.

Other Bilateral Agreements

Other bilateral agreements between our two countries include a Bilateral Visa Waiver Agreement and a Double Tax Agreement. These can be found on New Zealand Treaties Online(external link).

Trade

Information on New Zealand’s trade relationship with Finland is available on the New Zealand Trade Dashboard(external link).

As Finland is a European Union member state, the EU-NZ FTA applies to trade between Finland and New Zealand.

Embassies

• New Zealand is represented in Finland by the New Zealand Embassy to Sweden
• Finland is represented in New Zealand by the Embassy of Finland in Canberra. There are Honorary Consulates located in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Recent official visits

New Zealand to Finland

• October 2022: Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Jan Tinetti
• September 2019: Associate Minister of Public Housing, Hon Kris Faafoi
• April 2019: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rt Hon Winston Peters
• June 2016: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon Murray McCully
• October 2015: Minister for Education, Hon Hekia Parata; Minister for Social Housing, Hon Paula Bennett

 Finland to New Zealand

• November 2022: Prime Minister Sanna Marin and Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Ville Skinnari
• February 2018: Minister of Economic Affairs, Mika Lintilä
• March 2016: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timo Soini