The post was taken by Ilkka Räisänen, former adviser to the Chief Director of the Department of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

61-year-old Ilkka Räisänen has been appointed as the new Ambassador of Finland to Uzbekistan with residence in Helsinki, Dunyo IA reports. 

Prior to his appointment to Tashkent, he worked as an adviser to the Chief Director of the Department of the Finnish MFA.

In this post, he replaced Maria Liivala as Ambassador, who headed the Finnish diplomatic mission in Uzbekistan in 2018-2021 with residence in Helsinki and currently works as the Director General of the Department of Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of her country.

During the talks between the ambassador and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, practical aspects of organizing the visit of the ambassador to Tashkent to present his credentials, as well as specific steps for the further comprehensive expansion of Uzbek-Finnish cooperation were discussed.