Norway refused to station NATO permanent contingent on its territory
Norway is always ready to defend itself in case of an armed conflict, but will not permanently host NATO troops or nuclear weapons – as stated by Commander-in-Chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces Eirik Kristoffersen, RIA Novosti reports
“We’ve always done this. I joined the Norwegian Armed Forces in 1988. Since then, my job as a soldier has been to prepare for possible conflict. It is necessary to reliably deter Russia from attacking,” he said in an interview with Germany’s Welt edition, when answering the question of whether NATO needs to prepare for an armed conflict with Russia.
Kristoffersen also announced that Norway does not plan to station nuclear weapons and a permanent contingent of the North Atlantic Alliance in its country. Instead, Oslo limited itself to rotating them during alliance exercises.
“It is absolutely clear to us that there will be no nuclear weapons deployed in Norway in the future. We didn’t have this during the Cold War, and we didn’t have this after 1989,” noted the Chief of Defence of Norway.
