The desire for a Danish debate on the Stoltenberg report was the objective of the meeting that took place on Wednesday at Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) organized in co-operation with Focus in the Nordic Region.

Thorvald Stoltenberg, former Norwegian minister for defence and foreign affairs, attended the meeting himself, and explained about the tremendous strong support he had received for the report from around all the Nordic countries since he presented the proposals for the first time to the Nordic foreign ministers in Oslo on 9 February.

”The desire to strengthen Nordic co-operation is an expression of a new mental European map”, said Stoltenberg solemnly.

Hans Mouritzen, senior researcher at DIIS, praised Stoltenberg's report for being exceptionally tangible and at the same time extremely visionary.
However, he called for a Danish discussion on Stoltenberg’s controversial initiative, and said:

“It will be a new departure if this proposal for a new Nordic defence alliance comes to fruition”.

Jan-Erik Enestam, who is a former Finnish minster for defence and current Secretary General of the Nordic Council, gave his full support to Stoltenberg's extensive proposals, not least the new declaration of solidarity between the Nordic countries.

“The financial crisis has hit all the Nordic countries and is forcing us to work together, especially on the huge expenditure for the armed forces", underlined Enestam.

Peter Munk Jensen pointed out that, amongst other things, the economic consequences of Stoltenberg’s proposal are being investigated and analysed at the moment.

It is now up to the 5 Nordic minsters for foreign affairs to discuss which of the thirteen proposals in the Stoltenberg report that they can agree on taking further, when they meet in Reykjavik on 9-10 June.