Latest news with #Nordic-BalticEight
The Star
18-05-2025
- Politics
- The Star
Estonia says Russia detained a tanker in Baltic Sea
FILE PHOTO: Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna speaks during a press conference after a meeting of the Foreign ministers from the member countries of the Nordic-Baltic Eight, NB8, at the island of Bornholm, Denmark, Tuesday April 29, 2025. The member countries in the NB8 cooperation are the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as the five Nordic countries Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark . Ritzau Scanpix/Thomas Traasdahl via REUTERS/File Photo TALLINN (Reuters) -Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding that it had alerted NATO allies to the incident. The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement. "Today's incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably," said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. "I have also informed our Allies of the event." The Green Admire had departed Sillamae port on Saturday 18:40 GMT, and on Sunday afternoon was anchored near Russia's Hogland island, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels. The ship was bound for Rotterdam with a load of Estonia's shale oil, said the Estonian Transport Administration. The navigation channel out of Sillamae through Russian territorial waters has been set up under an agreement between Estonia, Finland and Russia to avoid shallows in the Estonian waters, the administration said. Vessels sailing into and out of the port will now be guided through Estonian territorial waters, it added. The Baltic has seen confrontations at sea over what NATO countries have described as Russian efforts to evade sanctions and sabotage undersea cables and pipelines. On Thursday, Estonia said Russia had sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea after an attempt to stop a Russia-bound tanker thought to be part of a so-called 'shadow fleet' used by Moscow to evade sanctions. (Reporting by Andrius Sytas; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Peter Graff)
Straits Times
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Estonia says Russia detained a tanker in Baltic Sea
FILE PHOTO: Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna speaks during a press conference after a meeting of the Foreign ministers from the member countries of the Nordic-Baltic Eight, NB8, at the island of Bornholm, Denmark, Tuesday April 29, 2025. The member countries in the NB8 cooperation are the three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as the five Nordic countries Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark . Ritzau Scanpix/Thomas Traasdahl via REUTERS/File Photo TALLINN - Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding that it had alerted NATO allies to the incident. The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement. "Today's incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably," said Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna. "I have also informed our Allies of the event." The Green Admire had departed Sillamae port on Saturday 18:40 GMT, and on Sunday afternoon was anchored near Russia's Hogland island, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels. The ship was bound for Rotterdam with a load of Estonia's shale oil, said the Estonian Transport Administration. The navigation channel out of Sillamae through Russian territorial waters has been set up under an agreement between Estonia, Finland and Russia to avoid shallows in the Estonian waters, the administration said. Vessels sailing into and out of the port will now be guided through Estonian territorial waters, it added. The Baltic has seen confrontations at sea over what NATO countries have described as Russian efforts to evade sanctions and sabotage undersea cables and pipelines. On Thursday, Estonia said Russia had sent a fighter jet into NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea after an attempt to stop a Russia-bound tanker thought to be part of a so-called 'shadow fleet' used by Moscow to evade sanctions. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Germany's Baerbock warns US of pressuring Ukraine into peace deal
Outgoing German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday called on US President Donald Trump not to force Ukraine into a peace agreement with Russia, after Moscow unilaterally announced a three-day truce for early May. "It cannot be in the interests of one of the world's biggest players, the US, either, to conclude a deal, a pact, that leads to further aggression," Baerbock said on the sidelines of a meeting on ramping up defence in the Baltic region on Denmark's Bornholm island. Ministers from the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8), along with counterparts from Germany, Poland, and France, are meeting in Bornholm to discuss security and cooperation in the Baltic Sea. "We need a reliable, lasting peace," Baerbock said, adding that this was what the Europeans stand for. The German top diplomat also noted recent attacks on data cables in the Baltic Sea, widely attributed to Russia, or the so-called Russian shadow fleet used to circumvent sanctions, as threats to the region. These hybrid attacks showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn't interested in cooperation but in further aggression, Baerbock said. "After three years of war, the announcement of a three-day ceasefire cannot hide the fact that the Russian president has set his sight on our European peace order," she warned. Increased cooperation among Baltic partners was therefore an investment in common security, she added, stressing the importance of strong German leadership to maintain peace in Europe. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday unilaterally declared a three-day ceasefire to last from May 8.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
European leaders, Trudeau gather in Kyiv to mark third Ukraine war anniversary
Feb. 24 (UPI) -- More than a dozen European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau descended on Kyiv on Monday in a show of support marking the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced on X that leaders of the so-called Nordic-Baltic Eight -- Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden and Denmark -- plus Canada, Spain and the European Union were there for a "support Ukraine" summit in the capital. Michal wrote that Ukraine has "shown the world the true meaning of resilience" in the three years since the onset of the war. "It's only up to Ukraine alone to decide the terms for peace," he wrote. "We believe in Ukraine's victory, but it requires action. We must speed up our support now." European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, who was accompanied by European Council President Antonio Costa, brought the same message from Brussels where EU headquarters were lit up in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag. "We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe. In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It's Europe's destiny," she wrote in a post on X. Addressing the summit, von der Leyen stressed it was not only the future of Ukraine and Europe that were at risk from what she called Russian President Vladimir Putin's "imperial obsession," saying it was in the interest of the whole world that Ukraine remained free and sovereign. "Autocrats around the world are watching very closely whether there is any impunity if you invade your neighbor and violate international borders. Or if there is true deterrence," von der Leyeb said. "This not only paramount for Europe. It is also important for Asia, for Africa, and both sides of the Atlantic. An investment in Ukraine's sovereignty is an investment in the prevention of future wars." She pushed back claims by U.S. President Donald Trump that the United States had provided triple the amount of military assistance to Ukraine to that of its European allies, saying EU member states had contributed $140.4 billion -- "more than anyone else." Announcing fresh sanctions on Russia and $3.7 billion in new funds for Kyiv in March, von der Leyen pledged to make speeding up the "immediate delivery" of weapons and ammunition a top priority in coming weeks. She said she would bring forward a comprehensive plan to scale up Europe's military-industrial complex to boost arms production and defense capability from which Ukraine would also benefit. Von der Leyen also announced energy security proposals involving integrating the electricity markets of Ukraine and Moldova into the EU, tapping Ukraine's "vast" gas reserves, 80% of which lie close to EU countries, and pumping money into Ukraine's renewable energy sector. Trudeau wrote on his X account that he was in Kyiv to meet with Zelensky and show that three years on from Russia's "illegal full-scale invasion" that Canada "stands with Ukraine -- now and always." Ahead of the summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the gathering would be attended by at least 14 leaders in person, with a further 20 contributing virtually. The international show of solidarity came a day after Zelensky sought to demonstrate he "is not a dictator" by offering to step aside in exchange for NATO membership after Trump cast aspersions on his legitimacy as the country's leader. Zelensky revealed the offer amid a diplomatic impasse with Trump who had called Zelensky a "dictator without elections," ruled out the possibility of NATO membership and accused Ukraine of doing nothing to end a conflict it started. The Ukrainian president stressed that Trump had a standing invitation to visit and that Ukraine was now ready to accept Trump's demand that Kyiv meet the United States halfway by sharing its major deposits of rare earth minerals -- provided it received certain security guarantees in return.
The Guardian
17-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Europe live: European leaders meet in Paris to discuss Ukraine's future
Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature US vice-president JD Vance participates in a bilateral meeting with Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte (not pictured) at the Commerzbank in Munich. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters The Paris meeting will aim to outline a European action plan after days of chaotic briefing by the Trump administration. The summit will also need to decide how to respond to a request by the US to spell out whether leaders are prepared to commit troops to a stabilisation force in the event of a ceasefire. Confirming the Paris meeting, France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio on Sunday: 'The president will bring together the main European countries tomorrow for discussions on European security.' He said there was a wind of unity blowing through. It will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia. The US has said there must be devastating consequences for any side that breaches a ceasefire agreement, an element missing from previous Ukraine ceasefires since 2014. More: Share Jakub Krupa Snow-covered logo of Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, which concluded on Sunday. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock After a brutal awakening about the state of the transatlantic alliance over the weekend, key European leaders are meeting in Paris today to figure out what to do next. They will not be necessarily looking how to Make Europe Great Again, as JD Vance claims he would have want them to, but how to Make Europe Relevant Again in the looming talks about Ukraine's future. Hastily convened by French president Emmanuel Macron, the talks with see key regional leaders try to path a way forward outside the formal structures of the European Union, and without the risk of being sabotaged by the likes of Viktor Orbán. Macron is expected to be joined by Germany's Scholz, Italy's Meloni, Poland's Tusk, Denmark's Frederiksen (representing the Nordic-Baltic Eight), Spain's Sanchez, the Netherlands' Schoof and EU leaders in Commission president von der Leyen and Council president Costa. The meeting will discuss what defence capabilities Europe could provide to give Ukraine credible security guarantees, including a plan for Ukraine to be given automatic Nato membership in the event of a clear ceasefire breach by Russia. But there is no hiding from the fact that the Paris summit will be taking place just as US officials will be prepping to meet with Russian counterparts in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to discuss some of the issues at hand – without any Ukrainians or Europeans attending. If Europe wants to put itself back in this conversation, there is not much time left to do this before it is too late, with potentially devastating consequences for the security order that kept us safe since 1945. Pas de pression , Paris. It's Monday, 17 February 2024, and this is Europe Live. It's Jakub Krupa here. Good morning. Share
