Agreement on Nordic declaration of solidarity

The five Nordic countries have agreed on a Nordic declaration of solidarity. Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre commented: “This is yet another building block in our Nordic cooperation.” The foreign ministers from the five countries reached agreement on the declaration of solidarity at a meeting of Nordic foreign ministers in Helsinki on Tuesday 5 April. The Helsinki declaration sets out that it is natural for the Nordic countries to cooperate in a spirit of solidarity to meet challenges in the foreign and security policy area. This is particularly relevant in the face of potential risks, including natural and man-made disasters, cyber attacks and terrorist attacks.

“This political declaration must now be translated into concrete measures, for example by building up a Nordic resource network against cyber attacks,” said Mr Støre.

In the declaration, the five countries state that: “Should a Nordic country be affected, the others will, upon request from that country, assist with relevant means.” Further, this enhanced Nordic cooperation will be in keeping with each individual country’s security and defence policy, and will complement existing European and Euro-Atlantic cooperation.

The idea of a Nordic declaration of solidarity was first put forward by Thorvald Stoltenberg in a report to the Nordic foreign ministers in February 2009. In this report, he proposed that the Nordic countries should make a mutually binding declaration of solidarity.

Source: Royal Norwegian Embassy, April 2011