The Nordic Swan: The Swan represents trust, integrity and freedom. It has served as a symbol of Nordic co-operation for over three decades. The new Swan is a simple, strong and open image of a swan in flight. Open-ness to new thoughts, ideas and partnerships is one of the fundamental principles of Nordic co-operation.
The Nordic Swan: The Swan represents trust, integrity and freedom. It has served as a symbol of Nordic co-operation for over three decades. The new Swan is a simple, strong and open image of a swan in flight. Open-ness to new thoughts, ideas and partnerships is one of the fundamental principles of Nordic co-operation.

In conjunction with the Session of the Nordic Council in Stockholm October 2019, the Nordic ministers for foreign affairs decided to embark on a new Stoltenberg Report on deepened Nordic co-operation on security and foreign affairs.

Many of Stoltenberg's thirteen proposals from 2009 have been implemented and are considered to have had a huge bearing on co-operation between the Nordic countries.

The report will be written by former Icelandic minister Björn Bjarnason. He will present his proposals to the Nordic ministers for foreign affairs in mid-2020. The report will give non-binding proposals on foreign and security policy, with specific emphasise on the following three policy areas; global climate change, hybrid threats and cyber issues, strengthening and reforming multilateralism and the rule based international order.

"Security in the Nordic Region is under threat from completely different sources than it was a decade ago – accelerating climate change, cyber threats, and the decline of democracy, sexual and reproductive rights, and other human rights in other parts of the world" states The Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Each of the Foreign Ministers have appointed two members to the reference group. The Norwegian MFA decided that the Norwegian contact persons should come from civil society and academia. The two appointed members from Norway are Torunn L. Tryggestad, Deputy Director at PRIO and Director of the PRIO GPS Centre, and Karsten Friis, Senior Research Fellow at NUPI.

"The Reference Group will have its first virtual meeting on 1 April and I am looking very much forward to contributing to discussions. I am particularly concerned with the role of the Nordic countries in strengthening multilateral collaboration. The recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has shown us that global collaboration to fight such threats to human and international security is more needed than ever", states Torunn L. Tryggestad.

Read more here.