On the Nordic-Baltic Countries’ Relations with India – The NB8 visit to India focuses on cooperation and trust

Source: This post on the Nordic-Baltic Countries’ Relations with India has been created based on the article “The NB8 visit to India focuses on cooperation and trust” published in “The Hindu” on 24^th February 2024.

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2 International Relations – Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests.

News: The article discusses the current fields of cooperation of Nordic-Baltic countries with India.

Background:

In this year’s Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, the 8 Nordic-Baltic countries, are participating together as representatives of the Nordic-Baltic cooperation, the NB8.

What are the Nordic-Baltic countries?

It includes the governments of 8 countries of the north: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden.

They are linked geographically, and share deep historical, social, economic and cultural ties.

Their advanced economies are outward-looking, innovation-driven, complementary and fully integrated into the world’s largest single market area, the European Common Market.

These countries share a commitment to democracy and human rights. They are all champions of an international order based on multilateralism and international law.

What are the current fields of cooperation of Nordic-Baltic countries with India?

1. Diverse fields such as innovation, green transition, maritime, health, intellectual property rights, new technologies, space cooperation and artificial intelligence, student exchanges, culture and tourism.
2. Trade and investment figures between both are steadily increasing.
3. In a time of geopolitical shifts, the security of the Nordic-Baltic region and the Indo-Pacific is interlinked.

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What are the proposals of the Nordic-Baltic Countries for India?

The Ukraine conflict has affected global food and energy security, supply chains, macro-financial stability, inflation and growth. Hence, the NB8 wants to cooperate with India in the following manner:

1. Increasing Strain and Need for Cooperation: In a more interconnected world, challenges are shared and require us to work together. For instance, Ukraine conflict. Global health, climate-related and geopolitical shocks that have caused significant strain to people, the international system and on the planet.
2. Positive Agenda: There is an urgent need to get back to a more positive agenda for global cooperation. Building on our strong commitment to the multilateral system, it wants to increase dialogue and cooperation on the issues that dominate India’s and other global partners’ agendas.

Question for practice:

What are the Nordic-Baltic countries? What are the current fields of cooperation of these countries with India?