NordenBladet — Finland is coordinating the cooperation between the Nordic countries and Baltic states in the Nordic–Baltic Eight (NB8) format in 2021. The NB8 foreign ministers’ meeting will be held on 15 September at Vanajanlinna, Hämeenlinna. The NB8 countries and the Visegrád Group (V4) will have a joint meeting at foreign ministerial level on the previous day, 14 September. The V4 countries are Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.The Nordic, Baltic and Visegrád countries (NB8 + V4) will convene for the ninth time and for the first time in Finland. The meeting will be co-chaired by Minister for Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto and the current V4 Presidency, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó. The meeting will discuss questions related to recovery , such as energy transition and climate diplomacy, as well as various topical international matters, including the Western Balkans, Belarus and Africa. Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto will chair the meeting in the NB8 format, where the themes of discussion will be, among other things, the situation in Afghanistan and topical UN and OSCE questions. The cross-cutting theme of the Finnish co-chair, which focuses on efforts to alleviate the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis in society, for example from the perspective of climate change, will also be examined. The annual NB8 foreign ministers’ meeting is a central part of the cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries. “I am pleased that we are now able to be physically present again. These cooperation arrangements provide an important forum for exchanging views and sharing experiences between the participating countries,” says Minister for Foreign Affairs Haavisto.
Source: Valtioneuvosto.fi