How should Nordics organise their internal cooperation within NATO?

During the Nordic Council Session the Centre Group proposed that the Nordic countries should organize their internal Nato-cooperation so that there would be space for a shared parliamentary discussion and situational awareness on the common Nordic security.

– We, the Nordics, need a shared situation assessment, not only wthin the military but also at a political level. We need a place where we can, among parliamentarians, have debates about the Nordic security and our political choices, said Hanna Katrín Friðriksson, the Centre Group Chair, during a plenary debate.

– The Centre Group has proposed a foreign policy and defence committee in the Nordic Council, as well as a ministerial council for these issues. We have been proponents of a new “Stoltenberg report”. Recently we have also advocated a Nordic security and defence policy report in line with the recent Norwegian Defence Commission. With these measures we want to strengthen the common Nordic situational awareness – and common action.

The discussion took place with the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the Nordic Council Session in Oslo. The response by Stoltenberg was that he is certainly a proponent for stronger Nordic cooperation but at the same time he does not wish to have a Nordic “bloc” within Nato.

More about the Secretary General Stoltenberg address to the Nordic Council can be read here.

Photo: Stine Østby/Norden.org