– Will give us security in the face of an unpredictable neighbour

The government promises a new NOK 7 billion for the defence. Norway will thus reach the two percent target in 2024.

When Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale attack on Ukraine, Europe became a more uncertain place. In recent years, there has been a new focus on defense in several countries. Also in Norway, which plans to spend NOK 600 billion on defense over the next 12 years.

On Thursday, the government came up with yet another defense news.

– Today we are announcing allocations for our own defense with an additional 7 billion, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre:

– These are investments we cannot wait to make.

The government will particularly speed up the procurement of air defences.

– We will increase the budget from NOK 91 billion to NOK 104 billion next year.

By 2036, the defense’s allocations are to be increased to NOK 166 billion.

– The defense we are going to develop will give us the security to deal with an unpredictable neighbour, said the Prime Minister.

With the new allocation, Norway will reach the two percent target in mid-2024.

When asked by Aftenposten if that means that Støre can come to the NATO summit with his head held high, he replies:

– I always hold my head high as Prime Minister of Norway.

The top percentage goal

The mainstay of Norwegian defense is NATO membership. In 2014, the NATO countries decided that it should be a goal that all member countries by 2024 should use two percent of their country’s gross domestic product gross domestic productGross domestic product (GDP) is the total value of all goods and services produced in a country during a year. SOURCE: SNL on the defense. Until now, Norway has not reached this goal.

But in March this year, the government announced that it will reach NATO’s targets already this year. It is a downward adjustment in GDP that has made it more reasonable for Norway to reach this target. According to the latest estimates, an extra NOK 5.2 billion is needed in the revised budget, writes NTB.

Today it becomes clear that a total of NOK 7 billion will come.

New US President?

The two-percent target was often highlighted by the former US president, Donald Trump, on the grounds that European countries do not contribute sufficiently to the alliance.

Now Donald Trump is once again running for president. It caused a great furore when Trump said during an election campaign event that the United States would not come to the aid of a country that did not meet the conditions. He confirmed that once again in an interview with Time magazine this week.

Not impressed

The government counts on the support to Ukraine in its overall calculation of how much is spent on the Armed Forces. Christian Tybring-Gjedde reacts to that. He is a parliamentary representative for the FRP and faction leader for the FRP in the foreign affairs and defense committee in the Storting,

– If the government is to reach 2 per cent, then donations to Ukraine cannot be included in the defense budget. Depriving the Norwegian Armed Forces of combat power (weapons and the like) is positive for Ukraine and Europe/Norway, but it must not burden the defense budget. The natural thing would be to budget the entire Nansen program in the aid budget, he says to Aftenposten:

– They drain the Norwegian defense of combat power and brag about it.

Hårek Elvenes from the Høyre believes the grant is absolutely necessary.

– The build-up of the Armed Forces must be accelerated in light of the security policy situation. The grant must be translated into increased national fighting power as soon as possible, he tells Aftenposten.