Meeting on Nordic security cooperation
The Foreign Ministers of the Nordic Countries will meet in Copenhagen on Thursday to discuss joint foreign- and security cooperation.
In February last year former Norwegian foreign minister Thorvald Stoltenberg presented a report where he recommended that the five Nordic countries should strengthen security cooperation in the north.
The initiative was welcomed by Norway’s Nordic neighbors and the foreign ministers dedicate Thursday’s meeting to the discussion on how to follow up the initiative.
BarentsObserver reported from the report: “It is widely believed that the Nordic area will have an increasing geopolitical and strategic importance, following the Nordic waters’ role as production and transit area for oil and gas to the European markets and the development of the Arctic”, the report reads. “With climate change and ice melting, these [Arctic] waters are opened for considerably activities, including new shipping routes […] This makes it interesting with Nordic cooperation in the sea areas and the Arctic”, it continued.
Read also: Nordic Defence on the agenda
Among Stoltenberg’s proposals is the establishment of joint maritime rapid action group based on the countries’ coast guards and rescue services.
Last spring, the Defense Ministers from the Nordic countries met in Finland and discussed joint cooperation. Finland’s Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies called the proposals for closer defense cooperation “interesting,” as reported by BarentsObserver.
In February, the NATO exercise Cold Response in Northern Norway for the first time also included Swedish territory.
