The Prime Minister's opening address on Norway and the Nordics in NATO

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Good morning – and happy anniversary to all of you!

I think we can say “75 and 1”, President Niinistö. There are two dates here that bring two historic events together.

I am really pleased that we can have this way of both summing up and looking ahead. I remember from my own university studies that it was – I mean, the remark was made – that NATO has been a unique alliance of endurance – and seldom has there been an alliance of such endurance over time – that also has been successful.

This was in the 1980s, and now we are in 2024, and we can say that it is really an alliance with a very long age. 75 years old – for a military alliance in European history – is quite unique. One should not forget that.

And the fact that we have reached 32 member states – with two of the most modern, advanced democracies in Europe adhering to NATO over the last year – I think is a testimony to the credibility and the value of NATO. It speaks volumes for NATO's role – being, as you said, Kate (Hansen Bundt, DNAK), as important and relevant as ever.

At the same time, I think when we now are going to focus on capacities, on strategies, on regional plans, let us not forget the key issue that President Niinistö and I discussed this morning; that the bottom line of a military alliance is about defense – that we are prepared to defend the values of our societies – that cannot be ‘outsourced’ to a military capacity. It really comes back to one and each of us.

And when we see the tensions in today's Europe, they never repeat itself. And the way President Putin is arguing the Russian mission – about what Russia is and what Russia has its mandate to do, and we see that now in Ukraine – we should also come back to our own populations, our own democratic debate, and say; "Okay, what are these values that we are ready to defend? And how should they be defended?"

They will have to be defended, in the worst case, by military means. But the whole essence of that, I think, goes back to a very key source of perseverance and preparedness of a population – and the awareness of what those values are. – The key issues of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom, responsibility of citizens for taking care of their own social fabric, that is the key thing.

For Norway, we are just one day ahead of presenting our long-term plan for defense (LTP), which will run until 2036. It is a big day tomorrow for us. There have been debates in the newspapers; "What historic period should we compare today's situation in Europe with – and, also from our perspective?" I think those are interesting debates, but they are not conclusive debates. It is only similar to that period – because history never exactly repeats itself. Is it pre-World War I? Is it pre-World War II? Are we in a kind of Cold War, as in the 1980s? Let those debates go. They are interesting debates.

But I believe it is important for Norway to go back to what I would say were the years after World War II, to the awareness that Norway's security is linked to the North Sea Atlantic European perspective to be secure; that is key.

And I think the volumes one can read from the ambitions of some after 1945 to create a Scandinavian defense union and a Nordic perspective; a lot of work was put into that. That did not succeed. And the decision –we will make references to that now; when NATO at that time (1948-49) was debated in the Norwegian Parliament, the Prime Minister at the time, Einar Gerhardsen, gave an important speech in Parliament. Perhaps the most important speech he gave was at Kråkerøy in Fredrikstad, where he made it clear that Norway was confronting an ideological threat. And we had seen what the Soviet Union had been able to do in Europe, and the conclusions – with a lot of concerns from the leadership back then – that one had to make the decision on linking our security to the Atlantic dimension.

The fact that we now can welcome Sweden and Finland, and for the first time in modern history have the whole Nordic family in the same military-political alliance, is of historic and magnificent proportions. And it actually illustrates to me that some of the ambitions we had after the Second World War – that there could be a Nordic currency, there could be a Nordic defense, there could be a Nordic market – none of them became true. They only became true either through the European dimension or an Atlantic dimension.

We have an Internal market through the European Internal market. Some countries have a common currency, Finland including them, and we now have collective security in a European Atlantic perspective. That is to me the key relevance – which we have to preserve and highlight.

Vilnius last year was historic, in the sense that we agreed for the first time since the Cold War – as you said, Kate – to new regional plans. And as we have had in the Norwegian debate; we can say with some firmness: We have brought NATO home.

Because back then in the first decade of this century, we had this feeling that our mid-career military officers knew more about Afghan mountains than Norwegian fjords, to put it that way. The ambition to be able to serve missions beyond Europe, I think, has to be intact, but to bring the regional plans updated and back to European reality is something that successive Norwegian governments have worked on. And I would actually salute the way my predecessors, the former government, worked on this during their eight years – as we started to do in our years – and as we have done now since – and it led to Vilnius and the first really updated regional plans.

So, when we present our long-term plan (LTP) for defense tomorrow, it will build on our Defense commission, on our Total preparedness commission, on the military advices from the Chief of defense, but also on the regional plans of NATO. Norway's defense will fit into that framework of how NATO plans.

And that is, of course, now being substantially increased in relevance with Sweden and Finland as members. Because since 2007, 2008, we have had a very close and increasing defense cooperation, politically – but also militarily, among Norway, Sweden and Finland in the north. But this is, of course, substantially different now when we can do it in the perspective of interoperability in NATO.

President Stubb and I could call Prime Minister Kristersson from the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel in Alta on the very day that Sweden was accepted as a NATO member and congratulate him. And we could exercise the half part of the NATO exercise with all three countries as members, and we could see the difference that made. And we are now planning, between Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki, to deepen our dialogue on what it means to strengthen our security inside NATO, as three Nordic countries up in the north.

And one element here, which I will highlight towards the end, is to say; NATO's military capacity is being enhanced and strengthened by Sweden and Finland joining, no doubt. But what I really also will welcome is to have Sweden and Finland around the political table. Because we will strengthen the North Atlantic Council with two of the most mature, advanced democracies in Europe – around that table, when we debate security – in what is always for Norway, a military-political alliance. – Not only military, it is also political.

So, I will end by saying that the key to NATO's success is our ability to adapt to changing security environments. We do that now with our military setup. But as advanced democracies, we also have to think the following: There have to be political solutions to our security. And that means that the future security order in the Euro-Atlantic area has to be thought through politically. It means that Russia – which is today what it is, an authoritarian regime, fighting a brutal invasion in a neighboring country – and that is, of course, really setting the framework for how we have to plan – will also be there in the future. We cannot ‘cut it out’ of the map.

We have to start thinking and reflecting on what a future European security order can look like. And don't forget that NATO was not thought-through just a few weeks before its creation. It was thought- through during many successive rounds of reflections. And among democracies, we have to reflect on what that future security order can be, while we keep our military capacity strong, and while we keep our political and value preparedness up to speed.

We will be investing substantially more in security and defense. The long-term plan (LTP) will demonstrate this. It will be the greatest investment in our defense since World War II. We will make the current structure work better. There will be increased emphasis on all sectors of our defense structure. It will be brought up to the level where it needs to be. It will take some time – because there will be major material investments and developments.

We will maintain the High North as our strategic priority. We need to update and further strengthen our situational awareness through our intelligence, through our drones, through our space, through our ability to operate on sea and under sea and in the air. The maritime domain will be a main priority in this new plan. We will strengthen our air defense, strengthen our army and home guard. And we will make crucial investments in people, technology, and infrastructure.

And by the 1st of July this year, we will be at the 2 percent of GDP for defense, which was pledged in 2014, to be strived towards that level in 2024. We will be there in time for the Summit in Washington.

So, this is a day to celebrate – with a cake – however, I will be eating plain bread with my government to prepare for another government conference, so that's how life is. But I would like to finish by introducing the next speaker, who I would call a distinguished Nordic European statesman. President Niinistö served Finland in two historic periods, and he was the custodian who brought his people along with him – in a harmonious but typically Finnish, serene way of understanding – on what is at stake and what decisions do they need to take. I have appreciated, President Niinistö, our contact, our dialogue, you are a Nordic anchor; I think having Finland now as not only a good neighbor and a partner, but as a NATO ally, is a significant strength for us. I have appreciated it, and it is a great honor for me to introduce President Niinistö of Finland.

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For more information about this NATO 75 years event, which the Norwegian Atlantic Committee (DNAK) hosted together with The Norwegian Institute of Foreign Affairs (NUPI), YATA Norway and The Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, see:

• News | Den norske Atlanterhavskomité (atlanterhavskomiteen.no)