Ukraine has brought Nordic and Baltic countries together

By the end of the cold war, the Nordic countries had become symbols of how to transcend geopolitical conflict. Norway brokered peace deals for Guatemala and Palestine, and “getting to Denmark” became slang for perfecting liberal democracy. The Baltic countries, by contrast, emerged from Soviet occupation afraid Russian imperialism would return. Yet their warnings were often seen as post-communist paranoia.

Vladimir Putin has brought the Nordics around to the Baltics’ way of thinking. In 2024, with Finland and Sweden having joined NATO, co-ordination of the Nordic-Baltic region’s defence against the Russian threat will get under way.

In fact the Nordics were always tougher than their image. Finland has a big conscript army. Sweden’s home-made fighter jets and submarines are world-class. Norway plays a crucial naval role in the North Atlantic and the Arctic. Denmark plans to meet NATO’s norm of spending 2% of GDP on defence by 2030.

The war has led NATO to change its strategy. The alliance used to accept that a Russian invasion would overrun much of the Baltics; it planned to conquer them back. But Russian atrocities in Ukraine have made giving up ground unacceptable. NATO now says it will defend “every inch of territory”, and is deploying more forces to do so.

Fighting has brought the region together economically too. The Baltics quickly cut their remaining links to Russia’s electrical grid and hooked up with Poland and Finland. Both regions have been tougher than other parts of Europe in blocking Russian tourists.

Nearly every party and politician across the Nordic-Baltic region now agrees on standing tough against Russia. That has pushed electoral contests onto other terrain. All this has made the two regions more equal: the Baltics are no longer such junior partners. ■

Matt Steinglass, Deputy Europe editor, The Economist, Amsterdam