Nordic, Baltic Foreign Affairs Committee chairs embark on US visit

The chairs of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committees of the Nordic and Baltic countries are en route to the United States, where they will travel to New York and Washington for a series of meetings and discussions focused on continuing support for Ukraine, defense cooperation as well as NATO's eastern flank.
On Monday, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairs will be in New York, where they will be meeting with Secretary-General of the UN António Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Dennis Francis and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Sergiy Kyslytsya, according to a press release.
They will also visit Columbia University, where they will participate in a panel discussion addressing Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the security situation in the Nordic and Baltic countries, Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO as well as the situation in the Middle East. This discussion, which will be livestreamed by Columbia online, will begin at 7 p.m. Estonian time (12 p.m. New York time).
From New York, the Foreign Affairs Committee chairs will travel south to Washington, D.C., where they will spend three days.
During their stay, the Nordic and Baltic parliamentary committee chairs will meet with U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives as well as journalists and think tank representatives. They are also slated to have meetings at the State Department and the American Jewish Committee.
To be discussed at all of their meetings in the U.S. during the week ahead are the impacts of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the importance of continued assistance to the latter, the Riigikogu said. Also on the agenda for these meetings during the week ahead are defense spending and defense cooperation between countries as well as the strengthening of deterrence and defense on NATO's eastern flank.
Participating in this joint visit are MP Marko Mihkelson (Reform) of the Riigikogu, Rihards Kols of Latvia's Saeima, Žygimantas Pavilionis of Lithuania's Seimas, Michael Aastrup Jensen of Denmark's Folketing, Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir of Iceland's Althingi, Ine Eriksen Søreide of Norway's Storting and Aron Emilsson of Sweden's Riksdag.
En route to New York with my #NB8 colleagues - Chairs of Foreign Affairs committees of the parliaments of the Nordic-Baltic countries. With our Estonian colleagues with @markomihkelson taking reigns of organising the undoubtedly significant visit to the U.S., on the agenda we… pic.twitter.com/zBGSUwvdc9
— Rihards Kols (@RihardsKols) February 3, 2024
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Editor: Aili Vahtla