Nordic sister cities gather around comprehensive security

For two days, the cities of Kuopio, Bodø (Norway), Jönköping (Sweden) and Svendborg (Denmark) delved into comprehensive security. It was a conference of Nordic sister cities, which is held every two years and whose theme this autumn was overall safety. Based on the principle of rotation, the conference was held this time in Bodø, Norway.

The cities presented the strengths and weaknesses of their state of comprehensive safety. The Norwegian Preparedness Commission also presented its recommendations related to the topic. Nord University’s crisis management research group, representatives of military national defense and NATO cooperation, and representatives of the joint rescue service of Northern Norway also shared their expertise at the meeting.

The mayor of Kuopio, Soile Lahti, presented Finland’s comprehensive safety cooperation model and also Kuopio’s comprehensive safety operations and expertise. The Finnish model received praise at the meeting.

“By developing Finland’s comprehensive security model, for example, taking citizens, organizations and mental crisis resilience into account more, it will become even better”, Lahti estimates.

The role of cities as producers of critical infrastructure and security of supply, population, and services, as well as mental crisis resilience is central.

“Internationality is a cross-cutting theme of the city of Kuopio’s strategy. From this kind of sister city cooperation, we also get concrete benefits for improving our own readiness and for our work to establish a comprehensive security competence center. We are looking for vitality and opportunities for business life in the Kuopio region from comprehensive safety,” said Lahti.

Kuopio was actively and competently represented at the conference, the chairman of the city council, Marko Kilpi, and the chairman of the city board, Aleksi Eskelinen took part to the conference. From the city of Kuopio, experts at the event were Kati Vähäsarja, head of civic services, Arto Holopainen, innovation manager, Johanna Liukkonen, business coordinator responsible for Nordic sister city cooperation, and business expert Arto Yletyinen, who has just started his job in the role of promoting businesses related to comprehensive security. Pohjola-Norden board member Tiina Luukkanen from Kuopio was also present.

Mayor Soile Lahti proudly represented Kuopio at the event:

“In such situations, you really feel that you represent a model country and city of preparedness, which has a lot to contribute to the issue. I reminded our Nordic friends who were worried about the situation on the eastern border that in Finland we are not scared, we are prepared.”

The conference program also included getting to know, among other things, to Bodø, European Capital of Culture project. The next conference will be in 2026 in Svendborg, Denmark. Before that, of course, the mayor happily invited our Nordic friends to Kuopio next year to celebrate the city’s 250-year history! The discussions on the topic of comprehensive safety will continue among the cities in the near future.