News

On 18 December, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis attended a virtual meeting of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) Foreign Ministers. Ministers discussed the transatlantic link, the situation in Belarus, prospects for relations with the United Kingdom, as well as the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and a joint response to the  crisis, and other items on the agenda.

Landsbergis noted that the U.S. had always been and would be a strategic partner and highlighted the need to immediately build contacts with the new U.S. administration for developing positive agendas of both bilateral and multilateral relations.

The meeting focused on the situation in Belarus. “There is no way we can talk about the 'new reality'. As long as the regime's crackdown on peaceful protesters continues, we must further extend sanctions, support the Belarusian opposition and civil society, and initiate an international investigation of the crimes perpetrated by Lukashenko's  regime,” said Lithuania's Foreign Minister.

Estonia is coordinating the NB8 format this year. In 2021, the format will be coordinated by Finland. Thus, Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu summed up the work of the format in 2020 and the Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto presented Finland’s priorities for 2021.

This year marks thirty years since the first Nordic-Baltic Eight Foreign Ministers' meeting, which was held on 20 December 1990 at the initiative of the then Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen in Copenhagen.