On Tuesday, the five Nordic Ministers of Foreign Affairs had a digital meeting within the N5 format – where also Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly participated as a guest, reports the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The war in Ukraine, relevant NATO issues, multilateral and regional cooperation, as well as the green shift was on the agenda for the meeting.

This meeting was held barely two weeks after all the aforementioned ministers last met – then at NATO's meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Romania and the following foreign ministers meeting in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Poland.

N5 is a framework for strategic foreign policy dialogue between Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland.

"It is very important for me to meet my Nordic colleagues and discuss current issues with them. I greatly appreciate that Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs Joly will also participate. The Nordic countries and Canada are partners and we share the same values," said Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs Pekka Haavisto (Green Party) before the gathering.

Norway has the N5 chairmanship this year and hosted a physical meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Bodø this summer. In the late summer, the Nordic foreign affairs ministers, among others, received a mandate from their respective prime ministers to explore the opportunities for an even closer cooperation within security and defense policy.

The Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anniken Huitfeldt (Labor) har invited to an informal foreign affairs minister meeting within NATO in Norway the spring of 2023.