The Russian invasion of Ukraine will have a "
long-term negative impact
" on regional security around the Baltic Sea, said Wednesday, May 25 the heads of diplomacy of the riparian states meeting for the first time in nine years, without Russia.
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Ministerial meetings of the Council of Baltic Sea States, a regional cooperation body, had been suspended after Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and Moscow's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Breaking with this long break, the heads of diplomacy from the ten countries (Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia) met on Tuesday and Wednesday in Kristiansand (southern Norway) in also the presence of the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell.
“A long-term negative impact on regional security”
Russia, on the other hand, was not represented: after seeing its participation in the Council suspended on March 3, it withdrew on May 17.
"
Russian aggression is completely incompatible with the cooperative model governing international relations in the Baltic Sea region, has a long-term negative impact on regional security and is contrary to the rules-based international order
," they said.
said the participants in a joint statement.
"
The Council's relations with Russia and Belarus (observer state, editor's note) will remain broken until cooperation becomes possible again within the framework of the fundamental principles of international law
", they added.
They also renewed their support for Ukraine, saying they were "
ready to engage in a strong partnership for cooperation and reconstruction
", and for the opening of international investigations into war crimes, stressing that "
the Russia and its accomplice Belarus bear full responsibility for the war
”.
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This meeting comes as two states in the region, Finland and Sweden, the only remaining members of the Council not to be part of NATO, have officially applied for membership of the Atlantic Alliance.
The Baltic has been the scene of intense military activity for several weeks with, for the month of May alone, major exercises in Poland, Estonia and Denmark in particular.
