The defense alliance NATO is holding its annual meeting in The Hague at the end of June. It could be a decisive turning point for the cooperation, following bleak signals from President Trump that other members must contribute much more, or the US would lose interest.
Preparing for that meeting is therefore important for the UK's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other leaders within JEF (Joint Expeditionary Force), a British initiative for joint military rapid interventions in Northern Europe. The NATO issue is the theme when government leaders from JEF's ten member countries on Thursday evening, with a joint dinner, initiate a summit in Oslo.
Among the guests welcomed by the host, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, are Starmer, colleagues from all Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and the Netherlands.
The meeting will continue with deliberations in Oslo's city hall on Friday. Then, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyj will also participate via link.
JEF was founded over ten years ago. But the cooperation has intensified after the outbreak of the full-scale Ukraine war in 2022 and the increasingly charged security situation in the Baltic Sea, including destroyed underwater cables.
As recently as last week, the JEF cooperation was activated when the military transport ship Hartland Point needed escort through the Baltic Sea. The Danish and Swedish navies followed Hartland Point from the Kattegat and up to the destination Estonia.
The example shows "how we strengthen our allies in Eastern Baltic Sea ... and provide extra options for NATO if a crisis were to arise", says British officer Dan Thomas, according to a press release.
Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is a cooperation for rapid military interventions in Northern Europe, as a complement to the defense alliance NATO. It was founded in 2014-15 with seven member countries: Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK. In 2017, Finland and Sweden joined, followed in 2021 by Iceland.
At this week's meeting in Oslo, the prime ministers and heads of state Jonas Gahr Støre (Norway), Mette Frederiksen (Denmark), Kristen Michal (Estonia), Keir Starmer (UK), Kristrún Frostadóttir (Iceland), Gintautas Paluckas (Lithuania), and Schoof (Netherlands), and Sweden's Ulf Kristersson, as well as the presidents Alexander Stubb (Finland) and Edgars Rinkevics (Latvia), are participating.
