[citation needed] He recognized the Baltic States' independence in 1991, as the only western foreign minister to arrive on the scene in January 1991 when Gorbachev was at the brink of a military crack down.

[14] In 2012, it was revealed that during the period 1998–2001, Jón Baldvin sent a number of sexually explicit letters to Guðrún Harðardóttir, a young niece of his wife.

Guðrún, who was 14–17 years of age at the time, attempted to push charges against Jón Baldvin for sexual harassment in 2005, but investigations were dropped by police.

[15] Jón Baldvin's letters were revealed to the public by Guðrún in the monthly magazine Nýtt Líf in February 2012, and subsequently he issued statements on his personal website.

[18] After Jón Baldvin threatened to sue, due to there being no legal grounds for his firing,[19] the University agreed to pay him 500.000 ISK in compensations and publicly apologized for how they handled the matter.

[20] In 2022, Icelandic media reported[21] about accusations of sexual harassment during Jón Baldvin's time as a 31 year old teacher in 1970.