Joint press conference

ESPACE PRIVÉ PRESSE & MÉDIAS

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Well, good afternoon.

Prime Minister Støre, dear Jonas, welcome back to NATO. And it’s always a pleasure to see you. We last met in March before I travelled to the Norwegian Arctic during exercise Cold Response. There, more than 30,000 personnel from 14 Allies – including 4,000 US troops – trained together in demanding conditions above the Arctic Circle, demonstrating Allies’ ability to work together, through NATO, to defend every part of our territory. But exercises are only one example of Norway’s important role in our Alliance and your longstanding commitment to NATO’s collective defence.

Norway has highly capable armed forces, and Norwegian personnel serve in NATO activities across all domains. You contribute to NATO’s Forward Land Forces in Lithuania – and I know you will be supporting Forward Land Forces Finland as well, which was established just a few days ago. Norwegian aircraft regularly support NATO’s air policing missions across the Alliance, and have helped safeguard Polish airspace, protecting key supply lines to Ukraine.

The Arctic and the High North are of growing strategic importance to our security. Norway’s expertise and leadership are essential to NATO’s posture in the region. Norway’s core defence spending rose to over 3% of GDP in 2025, up from just over 2% in the previous year, and this is truly impressive and exactly what we need to see across the Alliance. I welcome your commitment to continue increasing investment in the coming years.

Next week, in this building, NATO Defence Ministers will meet to finalise preparations for our upcoming Summit in Ankara. This includes reviewing progress on increasing investment in defence, meeting our ambitious capability targets, and ensuring that our plans and policies are continually adapted to support our deterrence and defence. In Ankara, Allies will also demonstrate how we are strengthening defence industrial production on both sides of the Atlantic, and building a stronger, fairer, and more capable NATO.

Of course, we cannot think about our own security without attention to Ukraine. And in Ankara we will showcase that our support continues, and that the responsibility for this support is more fairly shared by all Allies. Last week, I was with NATO Ambassadors for a historic NATO-Ukraine Council meeting in Kyiv. There, Allies sent a strong message of support to Ukraine, as Russia’s senseless aggression continues. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Norway has consistently been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters.

Norway was one of the first Allies to contribute to the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List – or PURL – helping deliver urgently needed US equipment to Ukraine. You are a leading contributor to this initiative, including your most recent additional contribution of over 300 million US dollars. I welcome the agreement between Norway and Ukraine to deepen defensive security cooperation, including support for the production of drones. This will help strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and sustain its fight against Russian aggression.

Prime Minister Støre, dear Jonas. From the High North, to NATO’s eastern flank, Norway makes the Alliance stronger. Thank you for your leadership, your support to Ukraine, and your unwavering commitment to our transatlantic Alliance.

NRK: I go directly to the question most Norwegians are wondering most these days. If there is an attack on Norway, or another act of war against Norway, can we still trust that NATO and the US will assist us? And I want two answers, especially about the US.

Very clear, and the answer is yes. The United States remains fully committed to NATO. We see that commitment every day all over the Alliance with US troops in Europe, US leadership within the Alliance and US contributions to our collective defence. Of course, commitment is always measured by actions, so let me get to the actions. The United States continues to demonstrate in practical terms its commitment to NATO every day. We see men and women from the US serve alongside Allies, from the Black Sea to the High North. For example, as we speak, US and other Allied forces are participating in BALTOPS, a US-led maritime exercise in the Baltic Sea. They are taking part in Rammstein Flag, NATO's largest air exercise this year, which stretches from the High North to Southern Europe, and includes advanced US air capabilities, including F-35’s. Earlier this year, the US-led exercise SWORD-26, across eight Allied countries in the High North and the Baltic, and this is an exercise designed to demonstrate the ability of US forces to reinforce and defend NATO territory. And earlier this year, as I said, more than 4000 US troops participated in Cold Response in Norway and Finland. I visited the exercise myself and saw firsthand the continued US commitment to our collective defence. So, the short answer to your question is yes.

Associated Press: UK Defence Minister John Healey just resigned over a disagreement about defence spending from the United Kingdom. Does this stress the fact that this isn't an easy process, to ramp up defence spending?

What we are seeing all over the Alliance, is countries really stepping up. The United Kingdom last year increased its defence spending. I had not heard this announcement, John Healey I respect very much, so I have to accept your assessment that this happened, but for me it's new. But more generally speaking, what we are seeing all over the Alliance is countries increasing their defence investments. And of course it's not easy because in the end there is always a trade off with other expenses, which are also important but the core task of every government in the end is keeping the country safe and making sure that there is a strong economy. These are the two pillars for our deterrence and defence, a strong economy which sustains the country, and all the jobs and the people in it, and at the same time making sure that the country is as safe as possible.

Aftenposten: To follow up on my colleague's question, we saw yesterday that there was a poll where only 11% of Europeans view the US as an Ally, and majorities in many European countries doubt that the US will actually defend us if attacked. So, how will you and NATO address this breach of confidence.

By pointing at the facts, as I discussed with your colleague. And the facts are that the US is not only in words fully committed to NATO, but also in practice. And we see this, and I just listed all these examples where the US is heavily participating in joint exercises and are leading those exercises with substantial contributions. We have over 80 thousand US troops in Europe. We have the nuclear umbrella as our ultimate guarantor of freedom in Europe. So, of course I read those polls but let me then give you the facts. And the facts are that the US is here. Also ,and this Prime Minister made this extremely clear when he visited the White House, and I always repeat this, he said the defence of the US mainland starts in Europe. It starts particularly in Norway. And you pointed out these huge nuclear submarines from Russia on the other side of the border, and you have that historic border between NATO and Russia of course before Finland and others joined, this was the only real border we had untill the late eighties. And with Finland joining of course we have a much longer border. But what Jonas Støre showed to the American President, these nuclear submarines are not there to attack Norway, they are there to attack the mainland of United States. And the fact that we are together in NATO, the US keeping Europe safe, Europe keeping United States safe, jointly, transatlantic, making sure that one billion people are safe. I think the best example of that was that visit of your Prime Minister […] visiting the White House, I think it was last year, April, and it was the best demonstration of how we are interconnected in this Alliance.