SCOTLAND is “committed to exploring closer links” with Nordic countries post-Brexit through a body set up to advance the region’s common interests, The National has been told.

The development comes days after a former Danish government minister urged the country to form an alliance with its northern neighbours and to join the Nordic Council if it became independent, if it wanted to exert more influence in the area.

Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, Europe and External Affairs, held an online meeting with Paula Lehtomaki, the Nordic Council of Ministers’ secretary general in November last year and later wrote that closer ties made sense.

“Scotland is actually the world’s northernmost non-Arctic nation. Shetland is closer to the Arctic circle than it is to London,” he wrote in the Scotsman. “There is also an economic case to be made for closer ties. Arctic countries are important trade partners with Scotland, representing 28% of our total exports. And there is another urgent challenge: the Covid-19 pandemic is having deep and complex impacts across the world’s economies and societies.”

Earlier this week Lykke Friis, a former Danish minister, advised Scotland to form alliances now with other northern European states in a bid to re-enter the EU as an independent country.

She said: “Scotland is also sometimes seen as a northern country, you could strike an alliance to that.”

Pressed during a podcast with Dr Kirsty Hughes, director of the Scottish Centre of European Relations, on what advice she would give to Scotland as a new member state of the EU in 10 years, Friis said: “I would say it should join the Nordic Council immediately because that would give you the legitimacy of being a northern European country.”

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The moves to forge closer links to the Nordic countries come as the Scottish Government prepares to publish a referendum bill which could facilitate a new independence vote. Russell has indicated a new referendum could be held before Christmas.

On the closer Nordic ties, a Scottish Government spokesman said last night that the “Nordic countries are close and like-minded partners for Scotland” and that it was “committed to exploring opportunities for even greater policy and knowledge exchange”.

He added: “Cabinet Secretary Michael Russell met with the secretary general Paula Lehtomaki in November last year to discuss how the Scottish Government and the Nordic Council of Ministers can work more closely and regularly together around the challenges and ambitions that Scotland shares with Nordic countries.

“They agreed to explore opportunities for greater Scottish-Nordic co-operation to inform a green, fair and sustainable recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government will continue to pursue stronger ties with Nordic nations and will seek to further discuss closer relations in the future.”

The Nordic Council of Ministers is the official body for inter-governmental co-operation in the Nordic region. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have been members since it began in 1971. Representatives of the devolved governments of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Aland also take part.

Hughes said: “The potential benefits from co-operating with like-minded countries that are neighbours, broadly, to Scotland and in the same region are clear. Whether on climate, digital, gender, mobility or other issues, the Nordic Council covers a lot of debate and agreements for furthering co-operation.

“Whether Scotland could get formal observer status with the council is an open question but there may be scope to participate on occasion as a guest for instance and the Nordic Council does engage with other countries in its region.”

She added: “From the broader perspective of independence in the EU, the Nordic Council states are all in the EU or European Economic Area (with the exception of Greenland) and both in the independence context, and due to Brexit, the more Scotland (government and civil society) can do to intensify relations with other neighbouring EU countries the better.”