Prime Minister Antti Rinne. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today

Prime Minister Antti Rinne (the SDP) will attend the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavik, Iceland, on Thursday to deliver the opening address of the event together with the prime minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir (Left-Green Movement).

Prime Minister Rinne will also hold bilateral talks with his Icelandic counterpart. The main topics will be climate change, sustainable development and work of the Arctic Council.

Iceland is currently chairing the council.

Prime Minister of Iceland Katrin Jakobsdóttir greeting the former Finnish premier, Juha Sipilä, while visiting Finland for the Nordic Climate Meeting in January 2019. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today

Arctic Circle is the most significant high-level meeting on Arctic affairs. Organized in Reykjavik every year, it brings together people representing national governments from the United States to China, indigenous peoples, universities, companies, and, for example, environmental organizations.

Rinne will also meet the speaker of Iceland’s parliament, Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, and Arctic Circle chairman and the former president of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.

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During the visit, Finland and the State of Maine on the north-east coast of the United States will agree on closer cooperation in the forest bio-economy sector by a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by Prime Minister Rinne and the Governor of Maine Janet Mills.

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The stay in Iceland ends with a visit to Keflavik Air Base.

More than 2,000 participants from 60 countries are expected to the event. Besides Rinne and Jakobsdóttir, the speakers include Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and the United States secretary of energy, Rick Perry.

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