European Institute

On November 16, 2010, the European Institute held a special breakfast meeting of the European-American Policy Forum with The Honorable Valdis Birkavs, Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia. Mr. Birkavs and Søren Gade, Former Minister of Defense of Denmark, co-chaired the recently released Nordic-Baltic 8 (NB8) Wise Men Report, which lays out detailed proposals to further cooperation between the Nordic and Baltic countries. Stressing the geopolitical significance of the NB8 partnership, Mr. Birkavs urged greater cooperation on foreign and security policy, and called for the NB8 to achieve greater cooperation with the U.S and Russia, within the context of NATO, and on such other areas of strategic importance as energy security and sustainable economic growth.  Following Mr. Birkavs’ remarks, Pamela Quanrud, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Karin Olofsdotter, Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Sweden, and Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, offered their own perspectives on NB8 cooperation.