NEWS ANALYSIS: When Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg walked into the NATO summit in Brussels last week, she’d already gained more backbone for her government’s own delicate dealings with China. New US President Joe Biden’s willingness to confront and criticize power-hungry Chinese leaders at the G7 summit the day before carried over to the subsequent […]
Spy scandal soils Parliament’s leader
May 21, 2021
UPDATED: The president of the Norwegian Parliament, Tone Wilhelmsen Trøen, has been subject to scathing criticism after she made sure that an embarrassing report on Norway’s military intelligence agency was kept secret. She’s supposed to champion openness, but her double vote against declassifying the report helped keep the results of a probe into the agency’s […]
Solberg survives Bergen Engines breakdown
May 21, 2021
Prime Minister Erna Solberg has avoided a lack of confidence vote in Parliament after she and her justice minister, Monica Mæland, apologized for the government’s lack of preparedness regarding the aborted sale of Bergen Engines this spring. That’s mostly because no one wants to unseat her government just 100 days ahead of the September election. […]
US nuclear sub was met by protests
May 10, 2021
The US Navy’s nuclear-power submarine USS New Mexico tied up at a civilian harbour just outside Tromsø in Northern Norway on Monday, to a warm welcome from Norwegian defense forces and protests by angry local residents. The latter fear such sub berthings will make their home a target in the event of war, and that […]
Intelligence agency not so intelligent
April 22, 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS: Norway’s military intelligence agency known as E-tjenesten has reportedly been rebuked by the Parliamentary commission (EOS) that oversees its activities. The government is intent on keeping EOS’ latest report on the agency’s spying activity secret, though, leading many to wonder what the agency, the military and the government have to hide. EOS’ long-awaited […]
Russia reacting to NATO ‘provocation’
March 31, 2021
UPDATED: Norwegian fighter jets joined others from NATO allies in responding to Russia’s latest show of force over the North Sea, the North Atlantic and both the Baltic- and Black Sea this week. They tracked and flew up alongside at least 10 Russian bomber jets that were sent out shortly after NATO members’ meeting of […]
Government halts firm’s sale to Russia
March 23, 2021
After weeks of controversy, the Norwegian government has changed its mind and will, after all, halt the sale of Bergen Engines to TMH International of Russia. The government now apparently agrees that national security interests are at stake, since Bergen Engines has supplied and still services some of the motors on several Norwegian defense vessels […]
New US bombers sound the alarms
March 1, 2021
NEWS ANALYSIS: It was almost as if air raid alarms suddenly started going off, right after four US bombers landed in Norway for the first time last week. There hadn’t been much warning about the 200 US soldiers who arrived just before the bombers either, and loud political debate over more US military presence on […]
US bombers in Norway for first time
February 5, 2021
In what’s being described as a demonstration of power, American B1 bombers will be taking part in exercises in Norway along with 200 US soldiers based at the Ørland air base for the next month. It’s the first time the so-called “heavy bombers” will operate from Norway but opposition Members of Parliament are not impressed. […]
Norway reacts to Russian’s arrest
January 19, 2021
The Norwegian government joined many others in Europe and around the world in criticizing the Russian government’s arrest of returning opposition leader Alexei Navalny over the weekend. Navalny, widely believed to have been poisoned in August by Russia’s Federal Security Service, was taken into custody immediately after he bravely returned to Russia after months of […]
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