Putin’s attack on Ukraine is forging the Baltic countries closer together. But how some jointly planned announcements will be implemented remains open.
Wismar – In view of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Baltic Sea countries want to strengthen their cooperation in the security and energy sectors.
At the end of its meeting in Wismar today, the Council of the Baltic Sea States also agreed on closer cooperation in the salvage and disposal of ammunition from the world wars that is stored on the seabed in order to protect offshore energy plants and underwater infrastructure.
Finland will take over the presidency of the Council of the Baltic Sea States from Germany on July 1. In addition to Germany and Finland, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Iceland and the EU also belong to the regional committee based in Stockholm, which was founded in 1992.
Russia’s membership of the Council was suspended in March 2022 after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine. As a result, Moscow announced its withdrawal in May 2022. Before the attack on Ukraine, the Council was one of the rounds in which concrete cooperation on technical issues with Moscow was possible.
Up to 400,000 tons of ammunition sunk
According to Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, investors should in future be involved in the construction of offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea in the salvage of munitions. Just as there are examples of this in the use of military training areas on land, investors should pay for the construction of power plants in return for using the area for clearing mines and other warfare agents, said the Greens politician at the end of the meeting in the Hanseatic city Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
In the final declaration, Council members point out the dangers that conventional and chemical munitions pose to the marine environment, fisheries, shipping and renewable energy plants. According to estimates by the Fraunhofer Institute for Graphic Data Processing, there are up to 400,000 tons of conventional ammunition and around 40,000 tons of chemical warfare agents in the Baltic Sea that were sunk after the world wars.
Baerbock made it clear that joint efforts to clear munitions would be cheaper than each country acting alone. However, she did not make any concrete commitments to provide financial help to financially weaker Baltic Sea countries. Despite the common interest, each state is responsible for its own territorial waters, said the Greens politician.
The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, and the Finnish Foreign Secretary, Johanna Sumuvuori, also see private participation as important. According to Huitfeldt, safety on the seabed is the joint responsibility of all countries in the region – even those that have less money at their disposal than Norway and Germany.
actions of Russia condemned
The linking arc of the meeting formed the reaction to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. In its final statement, the CBSS condemned the “aggressive, provocative and unfounded” behavior of the Russian naval and air forces in and over the Baltic Sea. This would disregard generally accepted standards of safety at sea and in the air. This poses a danger to navigation and communication.
Sumuvuori said that when it comes to security, the CBSS does not only think about military security. Supply, economic and energy security are also discussed when it comes to the resilience of societies in the region.
Vision of the future 2040
The ministers for spatial planning of Germany, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden adopted their future vision for 2040 at a conference taking place at the same time as the foreign ministers’ meeting in Wismar support in the Baltic Sea region.
“In times of global change, coordinated and integrated spatial planning is fundamentally of crucial importance,” said Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD), according to a statement. dpa
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