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Foreign Minister Baerbock in Norway
Photo: IMAGO/Thomas Trutschel / IMAGO/photothek
In times of war and crisis, even smaller diplomatic formats gain importance that they have not had before.
At least on the symbolic level.
This is what happens to the so-called Council of the Baltic Sea States, which this Wednesday will meet formally with the foreign ministers of the ten member states and the EU in Kristiansand, Norway, for the first time in nine years.
In the past, Baerbock says after the conference with her colleagues, there were questions as to whether this »soft power« instrument was still needed.
But you need it at this "decisive moment more than ever," says the Green politician.
It is an instrument of the post-Cold War era.
In 1992 the Baltic Sea Council was founded by the then German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and his Danish counterpart.
An era in which people focused on cooperation, integration and exchange.
But times have changed since February 24, 2022.
Russia's membership was suspended after the attack on Ukraine, and Moscow recently withdrew from the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
Belarus, which is closely linked to Russia, still has observer status, but that too was suspended after Russia's attack.
According to Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Scharning Huitfeldt, Russia's withdrawal was "taken note of".
These are intense days for Baerbock.
The day before she welcomed her new French counterpart in Berlin and also spoke to the Polish foreign minister.
The latest revelations about "re-education camps" in China, which SPIEGEL and other media reported on the day before, are officially irrelevant in Kristiansand.
On Tuesday, Baerbock had already addressed her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Berlin on the subject of the persecuted Uyghurs and the latest media reports in a video link that had been planned for a long time.
"Everyone who sees these pictures gets chills down their spines, these pictures are disturbing and frightening," she said later in Berlin at a press conference with her Polish counterpart.
Sweden and Norway for NATO "a real asset"
Here in Kristiansand, the focus is primarily on the war in Ukraine and its consequences.
The Baltic Sea region is changing, and the cooperation with Moscow of the past is a long way off.
It has become a sea of possible confrontation.
Sweden and Finland recently submitted their applications for NATO membership in Brussels, two traditionally neutral states now want to become part of the western defense alliance.
In the Baltic Sea region, "where we have relied on dialogue with Russia and regional cooperation for decades, there is now a turning point in security policy," says Baerbock.
It was never planned for Sweden and Finland to join NATO.
“But Russia gave them no choice.
They are a real asset for our alliance,” says Baerbock.
In Kristiansand, the German and Norwegian foreign ministers underline how important it is for the two countries to join.
They don't want to get involved in a forecast of when Turkey will give up its concerns about the NATO aspirants.
One does not know, Huitfeldt comments on the current talks between Finland and Sweden in Ankara.
It is, she adds, "very important for Norway" that both countries belong to NATO.
Baerbock makes a similar statement.
There are cautious, optimistic tones in diplomatic circles in Kristiansand about a possible change in Turkey's stance.
At a press conference in Norway, Baerbock was also followed by questions about Germany's hesitant role in arms deliveries to Ukraine.
She pointed out that Germany would soon be supplying Gepard anti-aircraft tanks and also mentioned the ongoing training of Ukrainian soldiers on the Panzerhaubitze 2000 in Germany.
The Norwegian Foreign Minister made it clear that not only Germany is experiencing a break in its previous policy as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Her country has also broken with tradition.
Since 1959, the principle applied that Norway should not allow the export of defense equipment to war zones or countries at war.
Behind the scenes in Kristiansand, it can be heard that the Norwegians – who share a 190-kilometer border with Russia – are not conducting such a large and sometimes heated debate in the country about their planned arms deliveries to Ukraine as the Germans.
Norway wants to deliver 20 older American M-109 self-propelled howitzers to Kyiv from its own stocks, as well as anti-ship missiles.
The Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is emphatically diplomatic in Kristiansand.
In his country, too, there was and is strong criticism of Germany's role.
He had asked his compatriots to be "a little patient" with regard to the debate in Germany.
From July, Germany will take over the presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
Before she left for Norway, Baerbock formulated it with a graphic comparison: You take responsibility “for an area that is a popular holiday destination for many Germans”.
Germany not only wants to use the presidency to promote cooperation in the production of offshore wind energy.
Youth exchanges are also on the German agenda, as is clearing up the large ammunition dumps in the Baltic Sea that date back to the Second World War.
The visit to Kristiansand also focuses on Norway's role as a gas and oil producer, which becomes even more important against the background of the war in Ukraine.
For Germany, the country is the second largest supplier of gas.
Norway, as German diplomats in Kristiansand call it, is likely to play an increasingly important role as a balancing supplier for Russian natural gas in Germany.
So far, Norway has mainly supplied gas in winter, but now it could also help to fill up German natural gas storage facilities in summer.
"We will compensate as much as possible," says Norway's foreign minister.