Brussels 22.12.2024 The leaders from northern and southern Europe have arrived in Saariselkä, Lapland for the North-South Summit on European security and defence.

The Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo hosted the event, attended by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

The main focus of the Summit is defence and preparedness, including Baltic Sea security in the wake of the damage caused to various undersea cables last month.

Furthermore, the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3, which was spotted in the area at the time of the incidents, was inspected by authorities from Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

“Coming to the summit, the main topic was security through different aspects, said the EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas. – I think what is fundamental is that Russia poses a direct threat to European security. But security comprises of different elements, and they are different in the east, the south, the north, and the west. But we can tackle these issues if we act together, this is also fundamental. Security concerns we can tackle them by investing more in defence, and we discussed how we can do that”.

“Of course, it’s not easy. We know these discussions that we have on the European level, but we need to continue these and shoulder more responsibility. We need to find the ways. Because if we want to prevent the war, we really need to do more on defence. We have to invest in critical capabilities, that is also very clear.

“We see all across Europe, different hybrid attacks, whether it’s sabotage acts, we see cyber-attacks also [Russia’s] dangerous shadow fleet, GPS jamming and damage to [subsea] cables, but also weaponizing of migration. And of course, it’s not always only weaponizing migration by malign actors, but it’s also criminal organizations that do it. And all these issues strain borders, resources, and our shared security. We must be proactive also in stabilizing the regions of origin when it comes to migration, not just reacting to the pressures at our borders.

“What I want to stress is that when people are asked what they like about European Union, the first thing they say is free movement of people across Europe. But we can’t be both borderless inside and outside. That means we need to protect our external borders. And again, I think together, we can tackle these issues. Thank you very much for these discussions. I think we had a lot of thoughts to elaborate further […] And thank you for the excellent welcome here in Lapland. I hope this is not the last time we are here”.