Norway should boost financial aid to Ukraine and hike its own defence spending, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said on Thursday, declaring the country faced its most serious security situation for 80 years.
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Norway, home to the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of US$1.8 trillion, has seen soaring income from gas sales to Europe as a result of Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion, and faces pressure at home and abroad to boost its aid.
Stoere’s move marks the latest example of a European country scrambling to boost defence spending and maintain support for Ukraine after President Donald Trump froze US military aid to Kyiv and fuelled doubts about its commitment to European Nato allies.
The Nordic nation now faces “the most serious security situation for our country since World War II”, Stoere said in an address to parliament.
Parliament last year agreed to spend 35 billion crowns (US$3.22 billion) on military and civilian support for Ukraine in 2025, increasing the total framework, dubbed the Nansen programme, to 155 billion crowns from 2023 to 2030.
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