Joint statement by Foreign Ministers Carl Bildt, Ilkka Kanerva and Jonas Gahr Støre on 10 October 2007 in Bodö
Press release 202/2007
10 October, 2007
Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva meet with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Bodö, Norway on 9–10 October. At the close of the meeting, the Foreign Ministers gave the following joint statement:
“Today we have discussed strengthening cooperation in foreign and security policy between our countries. This is a natural outcome of the changed conditions as regards security policy, both in the Nordic region and in the whole of Europe. We face the same challenges in the foreign and security policy context in the North, and it is our hope that we can utilise this partnership in order to develop deeper cooperation.
The new security policy environment affords new possibilities for deeper cooperation in our countries’ participation in international peacekeeping operations and cooperation in the field. We stress, in particular, that information exchange will be reinforced when considering our input to stability and security within the framework of the UN, NATO, the EU and the OSCE. This also applies to the possibility of strengthening cooperation in association with peacekeeping operations. Through Norway’s security policy cooperation with the EU, as also Sweden’s and Finland’s cooperation with NATO, new horizons open up from which we hope we can all benefit.
We wish to consider possibilities for strengthening and building upon cooperation with our Defence Minister colleagues. Cooperation between Sweden and Finland has already been started by exchanging maritime situation pictures, and corresponding cooperation in monitoring airspace is under preparation. In addition, the defence force commanders of Norway and Sweden have recently investigated possibilities for deepening defence cooperation between the two countries. These examples are concrete evidence that there is opportunity for cooperation in this sector between our three countries.
Cooperation between our countries is developed in a way that fully respects the obligations we have assumed in various international organisations, and that builds on established cooperation between the five Nordic countries. It is important that the other Nordic countries are kept informed of this cooperation and are included in connection with each relevant instance.
We wish to develop cooperation in the North, based on openness towards Russia.
As concerns Afghanistan, we will evaluate possibilities to intensify our cooperation within the framework of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), especially with regard to training the Afghan army, activities of provincial reconstruction teams (PRT) and our cooperation in terms of other group participations and support measures. Through cooperation of this type, we strive to achieve more significant results from our three countries’ joint input, and to create a more long-range basis for our own planning.
We also see important possibilities for intensified cooperation as concerns civilian input in Afghanistan, especially with regard to reform of the security sector.
Similar possibilities for cooperation are opening up in Africa, in operations led by the UN and the EU.
We have today contemplated how we could strengthen and adapt regional cooperation agreements in the North, particularly Barents Sea region and Baltic Sea region cooperation, by binding them more tightly to broader European processes. We will continue our contemplation of this.
We stress cooperation that is developing in the framework of the Northern Dimension, not least the progress that has taken place in environmental partnership, including nuclear safety, as well as partnership in issues of health and social welfare. We will study in greater detail the possibilities for strengthening cross-border and wider regional cooperation between regions and Russia. This could, among others, involve facilitation of contacts among people across borders, and deepening of cooperation between twinned areas and in the business world. In this connection it would be natural to strive to learn from each other’s experiences.
We also see opportunities for stronger trilateral business cooperation. The ongoing discussions of business and infrastructure development plans in the North Calotte Area have been beneficial. We hope we can help promote better coordination of national plans and more effective utilisation of overall northern resources.
In the sector of know-how, all three – Finland, Sweden and Norway – take part in the Bologna Process of the EU; in the main, this theme is addressed well through Nordic cooperation mechanisms. It would be meaningful to consider specific fields of priority such as, for example, environmental monitoring, where trilateral cooperation can bring added value.
Development in the North also opens the way for closer dialogue on energy issues in the broad sense.”
Additional information: Director General Pilvi-Sisko Vierros-Villeneuve, Political Department, tel. +358 40 721 1705 and Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs Tanja Jääskeläinen, tel. +358 40 511 3786