News

On 27 August at a meeting of the foreign ministers of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland (the NB8) in Riga, Lithuania’s chief diplomat called on the Nordic and Baltic States to pursue increased integration.“Europe’s ongoing regionalization is beneficial for the European Union itself. Baltic-Nordic cooperation is the only real opportunity for us to be visible and influential not only in Europe, but also in the world,” Foreign Minister A.Ažubalis said in his remarks.

In Riga, the NB8 foreign ministers discussed a report that was prepared by NB8 specialists. The report provides analysis of 20 years of experience in the realm of Nordic-Baltic cooperation as well as specific recommendations for regional cooperation.

The report formulated 38 specific recommendations on ways to expand and deepen regional cooperation in foreign and defence policies, energy, civil and cyber-security, integration of economies, environmental protection and other areas.

Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Ažubalis expressed satisfaction that around a third of all the recommendations were submitted on the initiative of Lithuania.

The foreign minister added: “The recommendations that are set out in the report should be implemented as soon as possible. This requires the use of specific tools, such as joint activities of the Nordic and Baltic diplomatic corps, and a coordinated representation in political and economic organizations.”

Foreign Minister Ažubalis encouraged the NB8 foreign affairs ministries to analyze the recommendations of the report in concert with competent ministries at an early date, and to start implementing them in practice, so that the first results could be evaluated by the end of 2010.

“Today we make a new start in NB8 cooperation, an important milestone in the history of the group which was established in 1992,” he added.

The NB8 report itself was prepared by a representative of this year’s Danish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the country’s former Minister of Defence Søren Gade, together with former Latvian Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs.  This year Latvia chairs the NB8 meeting. 

While in Riga, the Baltic and Nordic foreign ministers also discussed the upcoming annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that will be held in Kazakhstan, including the setting out of the European Union’s agenda, the reconstruction of Afghanistan’s provinces, and various NATO-related issues.

On the eve of the foreign ministerial meeting, a meeting of the NB8 Foreign Policy Directors was held, which was attended by Eitvydas Bajarūnas, Political Director of Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The directions of Lithuania’s upcoming chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were presented at the meeting, and received support from the other seven countries in the regional grouping.