Deputy Secretary of Defense Spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson provided the following:
Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work hosted his counterparts and government officials from eight Nordic-Baltic countries today for a Nordic-Baltic Forum at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
The deputy secretary was joined by Danish Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Thomas Ahrenkiel, Estonian Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Jonatan Vseviov, Finnish Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Jukka Juusti, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Iceland Erlingur Erlingsson, Latvian State Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Jānis Garisons, Lithuanian Vice Minister of National Defense Vytautas Umbrasas, Norwegian State Secretary for Defense Øystein Bø, and Swedish State Secretary for Defense Jan Salestrand.
Much of the discussion focused on the changing geopolitical security environment in the Nordic-Baltic region, Russian behavior, and increasing interoperability. They also discussed opportunities to further defense cooperation and emphasized the strategic, operational, and tactical benefits of defense cooperation. They all noted the cohesion of the Nordic-Baltic region is critical to European and transatlantic security.
Work thanked participants for their contributions to international security and for their bilateral partnerships with the United States. He noted that meetings like today’s forum provide an opportunity to exchange views about security challenges, as well as to discuss current and future threats in the region and ways we can work together to mitigate those threats.
As part of the forum, the leaders also observed capability and technology demonstrations of an infantry unit at the Marine Corps base.
This was the fourth time the deputy secretary met with Nordic-Baltic deputy defense ministers.