Minister of Defence Häkkänen to attend ministerial meeting of Nordic Defence Cooperation

Finland's Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen will attend a defence ministers' meeting of the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) on Thursday 21 November 2024. Minister Häkkänen will also attend the defence ministers' meetings of the Northern Group and the Nordic-Baltic cooperation (NB8) on Wednesday 20 November 2024. The meetings will take place in Copenhagen.

At the NORDEFCO meeting, the defence ministers will discuss Nordic cooperation in defence matters, the security situation in the region and topical NATO matters.

"As the world around us becomes more dangerous, cooperation between Nordic countries will be as important as ever. We will improve our strategic and operational interoperability to better enable our seamless cooperation to strengthen NATO's deterrence and defence," Minister of Defence Häkkänen says.

The meeting will be the last chaired by Denmark. Finland will be the Chair of NORDEFCO next year.

"Thank you, Denmark, for chairing our cooperation this year. We look forward to Finland's turn as Chair of NORDEFCO in 2025," Minister Häkkänen says.

Ministers will discuss support for Ukraine in the meeting of the Northern Group. The Northern Group is a forum for discussing security and defence in Northern Europe. It is led by the United Kingdom, and its other members are the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, the Netherlands, Poland and Germany.

In the meeting of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation, ministers will discuss security issues in the neighbouring regions.

Inquiries: Anton Staffans, Senior Specialist, Ministry of Defence, tel. +358 295 140 074, and Emma Virkkunen, Senior Specialist (communications), tel. +358 295 140 176.