Sinikka Antila made EU Ambassador to Namibia

Ambassador Sinikka Antila has been appointed to serve as Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Namibia starting from September 11, said a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Namibia is a familiar place to Antila, as she worked at the Finnish Embassy in Windhoek in 1998–2003, first as Development Cooperation Counsellor and later as Chargé d'Affaires ad interim.

During her career, Antila has served in various tasks in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, mainly in the area of development policy, for example as Ambassador in Zambia in 2007 –2011 and in Tanzania in 2011 –2015.

“As representatives of Finland in the world, we have been involved in the political work of EU heads and in coordinating development cooperation,” said Antila, stressing the importance of cooperation with other EU delegations.

“It is very important that the EU acts uniformly and that we do as much as possible together, whether it is development cooperation, political dialogue or commercial relations.”

In addition to Antila, only four other Finns represent or have represented the EU in the world. Pirkka Tapiola serves in Bangkok, prior to which he was the Head of the EU Delegation in Moldova. Timo Olkkonen is the Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Zimbabwe. Jari Vilén served as the Head of the EU delegation in Strasbourg until August last year and Marjaana Sall in Mauritius until summer 2019.