“Russia’s largest nuclear arsenal is located in the High North, just a few kilometers from Norway,” he said, adding that Norway would continue to primarily rely on NATO for its security.
On March 2, the French president announced that Germany, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden had agreed to discuss nuclear cooperation with Paris. That could include joint nuclear drills, information sharing and, ultimately, the potential temporary deployment of French nuclear-capable Rafale fighter jets in allied countries — a concept the French called “forward nuclear deterrence.”
Since then, highly classified talks about exactly what the cooperation will entail have already begun with some nations, two officials told POLITICO.
On Wednesday, Paris and Oslo also signed a wide-ranging bilateral defense and security deal — dubbed the Narvik agreement — that includes a mutual assistance clause, more dialogue between their armed forces and cooperation on air defense, space and Arctic security, Macron said. In the past few years, the French president has sought to increase his country’s defense ties with Nordic countries, including Denmark, Finland and Sweden.
Støre told Norwegian news agency NTB earlier on Wednesday: “We are doing this in light of the security policy situation in Europe, including Russia’s massive rearmament, also in the nuclear domain, and that it is waging a full-scale war against another European country.”
He added that no nuclear weapons would be deployed on Norwegian soil during peacetime.
Milena Wälde contributed to this report.
