The latest week the BUP board and the coordinating secretariat have waited for clear directives from Uppsala University and the Swedish government on how our cooperation within the BUP can continue. We had to get clear directives since the BUP is a government assignment at Uppsala University.

The directives we now have received is the following:

Due to the war in Ukraine, the Swedish government calls on higher education institutions to suspend co-operation with state institutions in Russia and Belarus. The BUP co-operations with Russia and Belarus will therefore be cancelled until further notice. The BUP contracts between Uppsala university and the participating universities in Russia and Belarus will be suspended.

For thirty years the BUP has developed peaceful cooperation where all countries in the water catchment area of the Baltic Sea are included. The mission of BUP, to promote and support academic co-operations, can hardly be more topical, in the work for sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region. Our aim is as always to support the key role that universities play in democratic, peaceful and sustainable development.

It is devastating and tragic that such a development that we now see occurs since major efforts have been made after the end of the Cold War to develop peace, communication, understanding and co-operations in the region. The Baltic University Programme has been a part of these efforts – and still will be.

It is a tremendous tragedy that peace within the Baltic Sea Region has not prevailed.

The chair of the BUP board, Olle Jansson, Uppsala University
The Coordinating secretariat, Madeleine Granvik, Uppsala University
Associated secretariat, Ireneusz Zbicinski, Lodz University of Technology
Associated secretariat, Walter Leal, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences
Associated secretariat, Cecilia Lundberg, Åbo Akademi University