2023-08-16 06:05:31
After the accession of Finland and soon Sweden, the five Nordic countries – with Denmark, Norway and Iceland – will be united within NATO. The Norwegian Prime Minister believes that it is now a question of discussing cooperation and security more intensively.
Jonas Gahr Stoere, Norwegian Minister for Foreign Affairs. [Jeff Zelevansky / Keytone]The accession of Finland and soon Sweden to NATO is a game-changer for all the Nordic countries, said Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere during a summit with the American president in Helsinki last July.
“For the first time in modern history, we have the five Nordic countries in NATO. Sweden will soon join us. So we can discuss cooperation, security and much more than that.”
But how does Norway, a founding member of the Atlantic Alliance, and incidentally a major energy producer, position itself in this new configuration?
A very recent poll shows that two thirds of Norwegians are determined to militarily defend their territory in the event of an attack, but also that of their neighbours. And the fact that the whole region now appears unified within the Alliance may play a role in the outcome of this study by theOslo Peace Research Institute.
Growing concern among the Norwegian population
A determination that the current context has undoubtedly reinforced, according to Henrik Urdal, director of the research institute: “Norway shares land and sea borders with Russia. And of course, there is growing concern within the Norwegian population. But the increase in security tensions in Europe also increases the risks for Norway”, he explains at the microphone of the RTS’s Tout un monde program.
But what is more surprising in the eyes of Henrik Urdal is that the Norwegian population shows the same eagerness to defend neighboring countries: “Defending your neighbors is more complicated than defending your territory. It is interesting to note respondents consider this to be quite obvious and natural. Two-thirds of them say they are ready to defend the Swedes, the Finns, the Danes militarily. A similar poll was carried out in Sweden at the end of the year last and the solidarity with the Norwegians is expressed with the same intensity.”
A solidarity that is not new
This solidarity is not new. Since the 1950s, the Nordic Cooperation Council has cemented this alliance. And the enlargement of NATO to northern Europe will make it possible to forge other links, underlines Cyril Coulet, specialist in the Nordic countries.
“NATO offers a renewed framework for the expression of this solidarity since it is that of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization which provides for this automatic solidarity between its members”, details-t- he.
This solidarity already existed in a certain way between Sweden and Finland through the Treaty of Amsterdam within the European Union, but which excluded Norway which is not a member of the EU, he continues. “So there, we are witnessing a homogenization, or in any case a convergence of the strategic doctrines of the Nordic countries, which is in line with their feeling of very great cultural proximity.”
Cyril Coulet also believes that other European countries are struggling to understand this feeling of threat and encirclement experienced by the Nordic countries. Whether in the Baltic Sea or in the Arctic.
“These are spaces in which Russia is very present”, explains Cyril Coulet. “It is present in the Baltic through Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad, which is known to be an enclave that houses military equipment, possibly long-range missiles and missiles with nuclear warheads.” As for the Arctic, more and more freed from the ice, it is also increasingly becoming a space over which the Russian threat can potentially weigh.
>> Read also: Russia announces its intention to strengthen its positions in the Arctic
Neutrality in the background
However, these same countries have long perceived themselves as neutral, Sweden in an assumed way, but also Norway through its peace diplomacy. Mediation has long been a central element of Norwegian foreign policy. But according to Cyril Coulet, neutrality, mediation and multilateralism have clearly taken a back seat with the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.
“The choice to join a military alliance in peacetime seems to indicate that collective security is in great difficulty to guarantee peace. And there is, according to the specialist, something a little new, which is difficult to take the measure. “There is a contradiction or a difficulty in the fact of being at the same time presented as a mediator, and at the same time, being assimilated to a Western security group, a Western bloc today potentially in rivalry with other blocs.”
A new geopolitical era
For Henrik Urdal, Norway and the other Nordic countries are therefore entering a new geopolitical era, with less diplomatic efforts and more security policy. According to him, this policy will undoubtedly take shape in the coming months.
“Nothing has formally happened yet, but it is obvious that the efforts of the Nordic countries can be much better coordinated, with a Nordic command for example. But also certainly with a common defense effort, with a distribution between countries of the purchases of military equipment and a more concerted use of equipment.”
For the moment, all the Nordic countries have increased their military budgets in order to reach 2% of the Gross Domestic Product, a request made by NATO.
Francesca Argiroffo/fgn
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