Nordic nations stand ‘in solidarity' with Greenland and Denmark: Norway PM
Nordic nations stand 'in solidarity' with Denmark and Greenland amid US President Donald Trump's threats to seize the autonomous Danish territory, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said Monday.
'You can be fully certain that we stand by you and by Denmark in solidarity,' Store said, addressing Greenland's prime minister at a meeting of Nordic prime ministers in Turku, Finland. 'The Arctic is a regulated area. The Law of the Sea applies, the responsibility of coastal states applies, and we will stand by any community that is feeling pressure on those values,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
12 hours ago
- Arab News
Europe eyes Kosovo-Denmark deal for foreign prisoners
GNJILANE: By 2027, Denmark will relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro agreement that has raised concerns among NGOs and residents but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar MPs in 2024, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes nor suffer from mental illness or a terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovo, they will be deported to their home country. In exchange, Denmark will pay 200 million euros ($230 million) — more than six times the annual budget of Kosovo's Ministry of Justice. The detainees will be imprisoned in a dedicated facility in the village of Pasjak, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of the capital, Pristina, where work on renovation of the facility is to start soon. From the main road, the narrow path leading to the red-bricked prison divides the village in two, leaving about 1,500 residents on one side. The school, mosque and cemetery are on the other near the prison itself, which is surrounded by high walls with barbed wire and observation posts. The project has left residents perplexed. 'We don't know who they will bring or if they will pose a threat to the village,' said Zeke Zeka, a 57-year-old farmer and deputy chief of the village. 'If they were good, Denmark would keep them and not transfer them out of the country,' he added. Hanging out washing in the courtyard, Zeka's wife, Hasime, 57, said she regrets having a prison practically on her doorstep but added: 'It can't be helped. We weren't asked.' Doubt has spread even inside the prison, where the guards feel discriminated against. 'We will continue to work for the same pay but under a Danish regime, which is therefore more demanding, and whose standards are among the highest in Europe,' one of them explained to AFP during a tour. The agreement stipulates that Kosovo 'must make the necessary adjustments to the prison facilities to ensure they meet the requirements of the sending state,' explained Ismail Dibrani, director of the Kosovo Correctional Service. 'Of course, the layout will be adapted to the Danish prison system,' he added, specifying that there will be 'workshops where prisoners can work in printing, sewing, design, etc..' On the Danish side, the government appointed a senior official, Mads Beyer, in April to co-direct the prison, in cooperation with local authorities. His job, he confirmed to AFP, will be 'to ensure that prisoners serve their sentences in accordance with Danish rules and under conditions similar to those applied in Danish prisons.' The UN Committee Against Torture, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and several NGOs have expressed concern about the project. But the initiative is being keenly watched across Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron recently declared that prisoner relocation was 'not taboo' while Sweden on Tuesday said it was looking to rent prison places in Estonia. 'Unlike the majority of European states that are facing prison overcrowding, we have sufficient capacity,' explained Dibrani. 'Our prison capacity is currently 2,500 places, while we instantly have around 1,800 prisoners.' 'After signing the agreement, we received a number of requests from European countries, for huge sums of money. But we haven't discussed it yet,' he added. 'We already have a lot of work to do for our own country.'
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Ailing Baltic Sea in need of urgent attention
Unveiling its road map to protect Europe's seas, the European Ocean Pact, Brussels announced a summit on the state of the Baltic Sea in late SeptemberThe Baltic Sea is home to some of the world's largest dead marine zones, mainly due to excess nutrient runoff into the sea from human activities on landHELSINKI: Decades of pollution and climate change have caused fish to disappear from the Baltic Sea at an alarming rate, with the European Union on Thursday vowing to make the sea an 'urgent priority.'Unveiling its road map to protect Europe's seas, the European Ocean Pact, Brussels announced a summit on the state of the Baltic Sea in late semi-enclosed sea is surrounded by industrial and agricultural nations Germany, Poland, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the three Baltic to the Atlantic only by the narrow waters of the Danish straits, the Baltic is known for its shallow, low-salinity waters, which are highly sensitive to the climate and environmental changes that have accumulated over the years.'Today, the once massive Baltic cod stocks have collapsed, herring stocks in several sub-basins are balancing on critical levels, sprat recruitment is at a record low and wild salmon stocks are in decline,' Swedish European MP Isabella Lovin, rapporteur for the EU Committee of Fishing, warned in a report, calling the situation 'critical.'The Baltic Sea is home to some of the world's largest dead marine zones, mainly due to excess nutrient runoff into the sea from human activities on land — a challenge the sea has long grappled runoff has primarily been phosphorus and nitrogen from waste water and fertilizers used in agriculture, as well as other activities such as causes vast algae blooms in summer, a process known as eutrophication that removes oxygen from the water, leaving behind dead seabeds and marine habitats and threatening species living in the agriculture is the biggest source of nutrient biodiversity in the relatively small sea has also deteriorated due to pollution from hazardous substances, land use, extraction of resources and climate change, according to the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM).'The state of the Baltic Sea is not good,' Maria Laamanen, a senior adviser at the Finnish environment ministry, told change poses 'a massive additional challenge' for the marine environment, she the world's coastal seas, the Baltic Sea is warming the fastest.A 2024 study said sea surface and sea floor temperatures have increased by 1.8 and 1.3 degrees Celsius respectively in the Finnish archipelago in the northern Baltic Sea, in the period from 1927 to consequences of rising temperatures already affect species, while increased rainfall has led to more runoff from land to waste water treatment and gypsum treatment of agricultural soil, as well as an expansion of protected marine areas in Finland, have had a positive effect on the maritime environment, according to Laamanen, who said environmental engagement had grown in recent years.'The situation would be much worse without the measures already implemented,' she her report, Lovin called for an ambitious reform of fisheries, with stronger attention paid to environmental and climate change report also questioned whether the Baltic could continue to sustain industrial-scale trawling, and suggested giving 'priority access to low-impact fisheries and fishing for human consumption.'The head of the Finnish Fishermen's Association (SAKL) Kim Jordas said eutrophication was to blame for the declining fish stocks in the Baltic Sea, not overfishing.'Looking at cod for example, it is entirely due to the state of the Baltic Sea and the poor oxygen situation,' Jordas told Finland, the number of commercial fishermen has been declining, with a total of around 400 active today.
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
Ukraine to receive up to 1.3 billion euros from allies for weapons production
Ukraine's defense minister said on Thursday that his country will receive up to 1.3 billion euros for domestic weapons production in 2025 from allies after a conversation with his Danish counterpart. The first tranche of 428 million euros will come from Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Norway and Iceland, minister Rustem Umerov said on the Telegram messaging app. 'The money will soon be allocated to the production of Ukrainian weapons: artillery, strike drones, missiles, and anti-tank weapons created in Ukraine for our soldiers,' he said.
