Despite failing to meet NATO’s 2 percent spending target, Norway’s per capita defence expenditure is already among the world’s highest.
US President Donald Trump is not happy with Norway’s defence spending, a message that US ambassador Kenneth Braithwaite has been eager to communicate to a number of top-ranking officials in the parliament’s foreign and defence committee, the newspaper Klassekampen reported.
“He has made himself very clear and he is not satisfied”, deputy chair of the foreign and defence Committee Christian Tybring-Gjedde of the Progress Party told the newspaper.
Given Norway’s importance as Russia’s neighbour (the countries share a 195.7-kilometre, or 121.6 mi, land border in the extreme north), the US wants Oslo to boost its defence expenditure to the level of at least 2 percent of its GDP. In 2018, Norway’s defence spending amounted to 1.62 percent.
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