On April 8, at the invitation of Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, a video meeting was held between the eight foreign ministers of the Nordic-Baltic (NB8) countries to discuss the current situation regarding COVID-19 in the region, and how they can support each other such as providing consular assistance to each other's citizens on evacuation flights and exchanging information when exiting the crisis.

Reinsalu expressed his sincere gratitude to the neighboring countries for their cooperation in helping Estonian citizens return home during recent weeks.

"These are tense times but we have repatriated many citizens from across the world by sharing evacuation flights with our partners and being in close contact on consular issues."

In this context, Reinsalu also stressed the importance of exchanging information when planning exit strategies, which was met with agreement by other ministers attending the meeting. In addition to the already functioning consular cooperation, it was decided to begin exchanging information on the decisions and plans of countries when planning exit strategies.

"As the coordinator of NB8 in 2020, Estonia is committed to leading the work of this forum of friends and partners even during this unprecedented crisis. We are making plans for future meetings in the autumn and these will be held via video, too, if necessary," Reinsalu said.

The Nordic-Baltic cooperation is a regional cooperation format founded in 1992 to bring together five Nordic countries and three Baltic States (Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) in an informal setting to discuss important regional and international issues. In 2020, Estonia is the coordinating country of NB8.

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