Western allies with a Baltic Sea coastline will join forces to oppose Russian provocation, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in the Finnish coastal city of Porvoo on Thursday.
"If Russia's pinpricks attempt to divide us, we will draw closer together," Baerbock said ahead of a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in Porvoo starting on Thursday and continuing into Friday.
Security in the region meant security against Russia and not with Russia, Baerbock said.
The council was set up in 1992 to support the political and economic transformation of the region. It includes eight countries with a coastline on the Baltic Sea, as well as Iceland and Norway. Russia was suspended in March 2022 following its invasion of Ukraine and withdrew in May.
Baerbock noted that the region was home to a dense network of data cables, shipping routes and wind turbines.
The democratic countries of the council would oppose complex hybrid threats, from GPS disruption and social media disinformation to sabotage to undersea cables, she said.
