Pertti Torstila

Secretary of State, Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Pertti Torstila joined the Finnish Foreign service in 1970. He participated in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki and its preparation in 1975, and has since served at the Finnish embassies in Paris and Budapest, and as Ambassador and Head of the Finnish Delegation at the CSCE-negotiations in Vienna. He has further served as Ambassador to Hungary, Croatia and Sweden. In the Ministry for Foreign Affairs he has held the posts of, for example, Deputy Director-General in the Political Department, Director-General for Political Affairs and Under-Secretary of State. In 2006 he was appointed as the Secretary of State. Mr. Torstila holds a Master of Political Sciences from the University of Helsinki (1970) and has studied in Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris.