“Is there anything Europe could have done to prevent Russia from gravitating away from the European community over the past decade?” was the question Ms Huitfeldt put to the panel during the conference’s debate on the EU’s Eastern Partnership. Sweden’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt replied that it would undoubtedly have been possible to send a more unequivocal message to the Russian leadership during the years when relations between the EU and Russia were closer.

Anniken Huitfeldt was joined by three other Members of Parliament – Svein Roald Hansen, Christian Tybring-Gjedde and Elin Rodum Agdestein – at the biannual conference for members of foreign affairs and defence committees in EU member states and observer countries.

The keynote speakers at the conference included Federica Mogherini, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; Edgars Rinkēvičs, Latvia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs; Alexander Vershbow, the current Deputy Secretary-General of NATO; and Carl Bildt.

Among the items on the agenda were the status and future of the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy, collaboration between the EU and NATO in light of recent security challenges, and priorities within the EU’s security policy.

The situation in Ukraine provided a serious backdrop for all discussions and debates at the conference.

“It’s very important that Norway is also part of the broader European debate on central security policy challenges that also concern our country,” Ms Huitfeldt said.