Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg to NATO Headquarters for talks.
The topic was the Alliance’s continued adaptation and preparations for the meeting of NATO leaders on 25 May. The Secretary General thanked Norway for its important contributions to NATO’s defence and deterrence, as well as efforts to project stability.
“Norway is a founding member of the Alliance, Norway is a very committed member of the Alliance and we highly value the many contributions of Norway to the Alliance. You have been in Afghanistan with Norwegian troops for many many years, you continue to be there, you are going to participate in the NATO battlegroup in Lithuania, enhancing our presence in that part of Europe. You help us with support to NATO partners like Georgia, Ukraine and Jordan. And we also appreciate that Norway is the host nation for the Joint Warfare Centre in Stavanger. And all of this are important contributions to our collective defence, to the strength of the Alliance.
Let me also thank Norway for Norway’s presence in the high North. And over the last years Norway has invested heavily in new capabilities, new frigates, you are in the process of buying new F-35 planes, and you’ve decided to buy new submarines and new maritime patrol aircrafts. So Norway is increasing its capacity when it comes to presence in the high North which is important for the whole Alliance.
We discussed also the preparations for the upcoming meeting in May. It will be a very short meeting but it will be an important meeting because it will be the first visit of the new US President to NATO and to meet Allies and it will also be the meeting where we will meet the new French President. And I’m absolutely certain that the meeting in May will express NATO unity, NATO resolve and that’s something I welcome in times of more uncertainty, that we need a strong Alliance. The two main issues that we will address at the meeting in May are transatlantic bond, burden-sharing, and NATO’s efforts in the global fight against terrorism. When it comes to NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism we will address issues like Afghanistan. NATO has been there for many years, we are unwavering in our support for the Afghans, we will continue to provide them with financial support, train, assist and advice and we have to address the future of our Resolute Support Mission, the forces level, and how we can continue to provide support to the Afghans.
We will also discuss how NATO can step up its efforts to provide support to the Counter-ISIL coalition. We provide some AWACS support, we train Iraqi forces, but we will look into what more NATO can do.”
The full text can be found here: http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_143443.htm
Norway does indeed play a crucial role in the North, and one that can only get more important with the icecap melting and the north-east passage becoming busier. Contrary to some opinion the UK does actually play a role, but not so much in surface maritime ops.
To broach the dreaded subject of our forthcoming Independence in Scotland, I’d see Scotland’s role would be in concentrating on the North and Arctic, taking over the rUK’s daily role in QRA in time, and most if not all maritime duties. Perhaps the odd rUK Astute would still roam the seas. Leaving the rUK to concentrate as it does, on more southerly needs. Scotland could perhaps come up with some specialist Arctic ice-cap units.
NATO are so full of poo.
It was only a few weeks ago that the Norwegian government announced that they are scrapping ALL of their minehunting vessels & ALL of their ‘Skjold’ missile boats.
Just another European country making its military weaker.
Norway is not getting weaker. They are scrapping older units,to fund new replacements and high end capabilities.
for a nation of just 5 million people they should be applauded.
5 Aegis equipped frigates soon to be fitted for BMD.
a confirmed order for 54 f35As
a confirmed order for 9 Poseidon p8a mpas ( not taking 10 years to flippin well deliver)
Norwegian anti ship missiles. (well at least they have a modern highly capable anti ship missile in their inventory (pending capability gap for ukplc with harpoon retirement without replacement)
u212 air independent propulsion submarines ordered in joint venture with Germany, all in service within 8 years= 6-8 subs
All in all I would say they are doing ok and are keeping their defence forces bang upto date and highly capable, no obvious and significant capability gaps there unlike uk armed forces.
Does show what could be done
No….
52 x F-35s
5 x Poseidons
4 x new submarines.
Stop making stuff up.
I looked at Defense news from 2016 1july Norway is increasing its defense spending 52 F35 4 subs plus long range missiles yes its closing 11 bases to save 4.3 billion they will be replacing there Orions and more money spent on there special forces plus there TELEMARK UNIT