New Norwegian Whitepaper on Defense: The Government Increases Sea, Land, and Intelligence Activity in the North – High North News

Just before Easter, on Friday 8 April, the Stre government presented Whitepaper #10; Prioritized Changes, Status and Measures in the Defense Sector, which is now to be processed by the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense.

In order to a.o. increase the national defense capacity in the High North, the government upgrades the activities of sea forces, land forces, and intelligence in the North, as well as the Defenses capacity to receive and support allied forces, primarily in the North.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has major consequences for Norwegian security. Russia has significant security interests in the North. That affects Norway and NATO. Maintaining influence in our immediate areas will require more from Norway in the future said then-Defense Minister Odd Roger Enoksen (Centre Party) at the presentation of the whitepaper, according to a MoD press release.

The whitepaper describes overall security policy changes in light of the Russian attack on Ukraine and what consequences these will have for the governments priorities in the shorter as well as longer term.

The whitepaper also reports on the current status of the realization of the long-term plan for the Armed Forces (2021-2024), which states that the situation is now not as it should be due to delays, cost overruns, and competence challenges.

Following up on this, the government wants to consolidate and re-prioritize in order for the Armed Forces to subsequently grow and be strengthened.

On 1 April, the government announced that it proposes a NOK 3 billion strengthening of the defense sector in 2022, and pointed to immediate measures to increase the Armed Forces presence in the North.

These measures, now described in the whitepaper, are to be processed in the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs as part of a larger budget proposal about economic measures following from the war in Ukraine. The Committee is to present its position on 28 April.

More extensively, the government presents the following measures for the North in the whitepaper:

A whitepaper is a report from the government to the Parliament (Stortinget) about issues the government wants the MPs to discuss.

The Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defenses work on the new defense whitepaper will end up with a proposal including a.o. the Committees remarks and recommendations. This proposal is then to be processed by the Storting.

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New Norwegian Whitepaper on Defense: The Government Increases Sea, Land, and Intelligence Activity in the North - High North News