Earlier this month Norway doubled its humanitarian and military for Ukraine to nearly €7.5 billion, thereby almost doubling it. In a rare instance of unity, all nine Norwegian political parties in the Parliament agreed to it.

Norwegian firm Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace is also establishing a joint venture with Ukrainian companies to produce NASAMS air defense system missiles in Ukraine, according to Eirik Lie (Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace President): “We are talking about the mass production of missiles, meaning hundreds. We are looking at establishing joint ventures within months.”

Earlier this year, Rustem Umerov (the Ukrainian Defense Minister) announced the possibility of integrating his country’s air defense systems with NASAMS. NASAMS, the Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System is a short to medium-range ground-based air defense system used against helicopters, unmaned combat aerial vehicles, and aircraft.

Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre defended the move as needed during what he describes as “the most serious security policy situation since World War II”, but at the same time, stressed that oversight mechanisms are needed for the aid package – such budget-impacting decisions are always sensitive, and Ukraine’s corruption problem is well-known.

Even Alina Hrytsenko, international relations specialist writing for EuroMaidan press asks “Why would Norway – a wealthy, stable Nordic nation – commit an extraordinary $7.83 billion to Ukraine’s defense?” The answer, according to her, has to do with the Arctic. All I would add it has a lot to do with NATO’s expansion.

As I wrote before, with the accession of Sweden and Finland, NATO’s territorial reach has been extended all the way to the eastern flank of the Russian Arctic (the Bering strait), thus making Russia the only non-NATO member state in the Arctic. I’ve been writing about rising geopolitical tensions in the Arctic since 2021.

Finland........

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