We have made note of the joint article by the defence ministers of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden and the foreign minister of Iceland focusing on European cooperation in the area of defence and security that was published the other day in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. It goes without saying that every country has a sovereign right to address issues in this area. But recently, the Nordic countries have begun to align their defensive strategies against Russia, and this could undermine the positive and constructive regional cooperation in the North that has been building over the past few decades. In this context, of particular concern are increasing efforts of Finland and Sweden, whose official policy is military non-alignment, to ensure rapprochement with the NATO military bloc.

Instead of an open and constructive dialogue in pursuit of joint solutions to strengthening security in Northern Europe and the entire continent, including a resolution to the domestic conflict in Ukraine, they are imposing openly confrontational approaches on the public opinion of Northern European countries.