Within a very small area, data cables, shipping routes and rows of wind turbines stretch across the Baltic Sea region like vital arteries. They connect countries and people, they connect our free societies.

When complex hybrid threats are the order of the day – from GPS disruptions to the sabotage of undersea cables to disinformation campaigns on social media – then we, the democratic states on the Baltic Sea, unite to counter them. When Russia’s needling aims to divide us, we move closer together. In the Baltic Sea region, too, security today means security against and not with Putin’s Russia.

With the accession of Finland and Sweden, NATO has now become the shield that protects us all in the region around the Baltic Sea. And so, in the last two years in particular, the Council of the Baltic Sea States has also become a forum for our common integrated security. As maritime neighbours around the Baltic Sea, we all agree that we want to protect our freedom and security in the region together – now and for future generations.