Lehtomäki, 34, will be absent from her job for about six months following the birth of her second child.
Her ministerial duties will be temporarily handled by Centre Party colleague Tiilikainen. He will handle all of Lehtomäki's government duties including her membership on the Ministerial Foreign and Security Policy Committee.
Tiilikainen is a 41-year-old forester and organic farmer from Ruokolahti, south-eastern Finland. A former chair of the Union of Organic Farming, he has been an M.P. since 2003.
Lehtomäki was the youngest minister in the previous cabinet, holding the portfolio of Foreign Trade and Development since former PM Anneli Jäätteenmäki took office 2003. She was on maternity leave for the first time from autumn 2005 to spring 2006. Then her temporarily replacement was Mari Kiviniemi, now Minister of Public Administration and Local Government.
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