The geopolitical importance of the Baltic Sea region has increased significantly in recent years. The region is a focal point in the conflict between Russia and liberal democracies. Drone incursions, airspace violations, acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure, espionage, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaigns are among the wide array of hybrid threats that EU and NATO member states in the region are increasingly confronted with. They pose serious threats to Europe's security, undermine the resolve for collective defence, exploit social tensions, diminish trust in the rule of law, and undermine support for Ukraine.
Consequently, security cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic states, Germany, and Poland has intensified substantially. With Finland and Sweden joining NATO, all Baltic Sea states—except Russia—are now members of the alliance. This creates new opportunities for deterrence and defence against military threats, including those in gray-zone areas. At the same time, strengthening societal resilience against hybrid threats is becoming increasingly important in both national security strategies and the strategy papers of international organizations such as the EU.
Beyond that, regionalisation of security and defence cooperation is gaining ground, which can compensate for the lack of flexibility of larger institutions on the one hand and respond to the growing sense of urgency and pressure to act in the region on the other. Cooperation formats and multilateral cooperation, e.g., within the framework of the Nordic-Baltic Eight, but also the close involvement of Germany and Poland, strengthen the common understanding of security and defense policy in the region and complement cooperation within the frameworks of NATO and EU.
These are just some of the insights from the 17th German-Nordic-Baltic Forum, which the IEP organized together with its partner, the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI). The GNBF brought together policymakers and experts from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, and, for the first time, Poland in Stockholm to discuss common challenges and interests in cooperation on security and defence issues in the Baltic Sea region.
The forum centered on confidential discussions among experts. Opening the event, IEP Director Prof. Dr. Funda Tekin and Jakob Hallgren, Director of the Swedish Institute for International Affairs (UI), welcomed participants to a public panel discussion. Ludger Siemes, German Ambassador to Sweden, also addressed the participants at the start of the event. During the discussion, Annika Schechinger, Head of Division for Northern Europe at the German Foreign Office, Justyna Gotkowska, Deputy Director of the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), and Ditte Egnell, Deputy Director for Security Policy at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, exchanged thoughts and positions. The debate was moderated by Nicholas Aylott, Head of the Europe Program at UI.
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