On February 27, the Norwegian Chairmanship of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) issued a statement about the “impossibility of continuing honest and trustful cooperation” in the Baltic due to “Russia’s unprovoked military attack on Ukraine” and canceled a meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials of the CBSS (the main working body of the Council) scheduled for February 28.
We cannot agree with such statements. What is happening was the result of eight years of sabotage by the Ukrainian regime of the Minsk agreements in conditions when civilians of Donbass continued to die at the hands of Ukrainian security forces. Western curators, including some participants of the CBSS, have not really done anything to force Kiev to implement them.
It is noteworthy that the leadership of the CBSS, acting contrary to the principles of consensus adopted in this organization, refused to openly discuss the current situation. The decision to suspend cooperation was made during behind-the-scenes “internecine meetings” initiated by a number of Western countries, without taking into account the opinion of Russia, which is a full member of the CBSS. Similarly, they “suspended” the work of the Parliamentary Conference of the Baltic Sea (PCBM). We are sure that the “fuss” started by Westerners in the Baltic structures will not lead to anything good.
The main value of the CBSS during the thirty years of its existence was precisely the depoliticized and non-opportunistic nature of the work, reliance on practical cooperation in the region. Now the Norwegian presidency, with the support of a number of other Council members, has scrapped these fundamental principles. Thus, our “partners” in the Baltic have called into question the continued existence of this useful forum. Project activities within the framework of the CBSS and the current obligations of the Council to the designers were under attack. It’s not our choice. The responsibility for the collapse of the Baltic cooperation will be entirely on the conscience of those who defiantly refused dialogue with Russia.
We call for the preservation of common sense. The unwinding of anti-Russian hysteria and the politicization of the work of the CBSS, as well as other formats of regional cooperation in the North, is a path to nowhere.
