At a meeting on Friday, the Nordic foreign ministers expressed their surprise at last week's Russian control visit to the Nordic Council of Ministers' Office in Kaliningrad. A diplomatic move from the Nordic ambassadors in Moscow is now expected to be made.
In 2013, Sweden is President of the unofficial Nordic foreign and security policy co-operation. For that reason, the Nordic foreign ministers met in the Stockholm archipelago last week. Issues on the agenda included Nordic co-operation in the UN and the Arctic. At the subsequent press conference the ministers were asked about the Russian visit to the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Kaliningrad.
"We expressed our surprise that Russia has used a new law, on which we have had many points of view, have also conducted an inspection of the Nordic Information Office in Kaliningrad," said Sweden's foreign minister and host of the meeting, Carl Bildt. He also referred to similar criticism of the law from the European Union.
According to the Finnish foreign minister, Erkki Tuomioja, a démarche will probably be issued during the coming weeks. This means that the Nordic ambassadors will request a joint an audience with, for example, the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister to verbally express their views on the incident.
The Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers expressed deep regret at the control visit to the Kaliningrad office.
"This can be described as disruptive to the otherwise good co-operation between the Nordic Council of Ministers and Russia," says Dagfinn Høybråten. The Secretary General of the Nordic Council of Ministers will address this specific issue with the Russian authorities very soon.
Kenneth Broman
Phone
+45 24 69 94 03
Email
kbr@norden.org
Bodil Tingsby
Phone
+45 33 96 03 57
Email
bot@norden.org