Barents Ministerial Meeting is arranged in Umeå, northern Sweden on October 3. EU Arctic Forum organized by Sweden and the EU takes place at the same time. In the interview of The Barents Observer Markku Heikkilä evaluates that combining these two programs is downscaling of the Barents cooperation.
Heikkilä has followed the ups and downs of international Arctic- and Northern cooperations for decades. According to him Arctic seems to be a much sexier word and in the bigger picture, the Barents is disappearing. The term Arctic Europe has appeared and it usually means the northern parts of Finland, Sweden and Norway,» Heikkilä tells and concludes: «At this stage, Russia is omitted or left out of the analysis: it is not considered a part of Arctic Europe.»
Press Officer with Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Buster Mirow Emitslöf, refutes that Barents is put in the shadow and emphasizes that these two are entirely separate events.
Read the whole article from The Barents Observer