President Niinistö to receive Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award

Office of the President of the Republic of Finland
Press release 47/2022
19 September 2022

President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö will be presented with the Global Citizen Award, granted by the Atlantic Council, on Monday, 19 September 2022. The award is granted annually to persons who have made exceptional and distinctive contributions to strengthening the transatlantic relations.

Along with President Niinistö, this year’s other award recipients include Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and actor and activist Forest Whitaker. The late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe will be awarded with a special honorary mention.

The award will be presented over the awards dinner to be held in New York on 19 September. On President Niinistö’s behalf, the award will be received by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, since President Niinistö is attending the funeral of Queen Elizabet II in London.

The Atlantic Council is a US organization and research institute, focused on foreign and security policy issues and transatlantic relations. The organization was established in 1961.

Former recipients of the award include the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

The awards ceremony will be streamed live on Tuesday 20 September 2022, beginning at 02:15 am Finnish time (on Monday, 19 September at 7:15 pm New York time). A video address by President Niinistö will be shown at the event.