Norway State Secretary: NATO industrial capacity doesn't match demand

Putting into context the importance of this facility, particularly in the context of Norway's defensive plans. So for 2 1/2 years now, Norway, together with other allied nations, have donated substantially to Ukraine in order to support them fighting up Russian aggression. And there is a need for us to replenish our stocks. At the same time we need to be able to continue to support Ukraine and build our own armed forces. And we have very recently, just last week, adopted a new 12 year plan for the build up of our armed forces. It is a very ambitious plan. And in order for that plan to be successful, we need industry capacity that matches the new level. And do you think that industry capacity does match that level? Because as you say, it's not just supporting Ukraine, it's building up the own sort of NATO alliance to the tune of probably trillions of dollars for the years to come. There is a realisation in the entire NATO community right now that our industrial capacity in the Western alliance does not match the demand right now. Therefore, there is a great need to expand production capacity in the defence industry in the entire. And how much does the sort of future of that defence agreement, NATO and the potential election of Donald Trump in the United States come into your figuring? Does it change how much money you think needs to be spent on defence here? Norway's plan is based on the deteriorating security situation in Europe resulting from Russia's aggression in Ukraine. And we realized that Norway need to strengthen our armed forces and we also realised that Europe needs to take a greater responsibility for our own security. And this defence plan does exactly that. And then in terms of sort of the conversations that you have about sort of a Norwegian defence and the meetings that you have, obviously one of the main concerns is the oil and gas fields that are quite near to Russia. Are those coming into under pressure? Are you seeing sort of drone interference? Are you concerned there? Well, the deteriorating security situation affect all of Norway and all of our security matters. So that is one aspect of it, but it is not the not the most important aspect of it. And in terms of one of the sort of, I would say, accidental beneficiaries of the war in Ukraine has been Norway. Insofar as you guys are sort of the main provider now of oil and gas to Europe, do you think that there's a greater obligation that Norway has to actually do even more in terms of securing European collective defence? Norway has a moral obligation to support Ukraine, as has every other European nation, and we recognise that obligation. And in January last year, Norway adopted A5 year $7 billion fund in support of Ukraine that has unanimous support in parliament, which at that time is was a very large support package. And then, you know, Russia's also gone into sort of full blown war economy. Do you think that Europe needs to take some lessons out of that book and needs to adjust not just in Norway but more broadly within Europe? As I said earlier, there is a realisation in the NATO Community that we need to expand our industry, industrial base in order to be able to meet the current security situation and the needs in the alliance. And Norway has taken its part, among other things, by doing this, expanding our missile production. And I think it is important that other European countries expand their production. And this also just trying to understand kind of strategically the areas that you're trying to strengthen within the military. Where are you allocating those resources? It's sort of more naval or where, where are you looking at the threats? We are making substantial investments in our maritime forces. We are renewing our entire surface surface fleet as well as investing in more submarines. We are also making very substantial investments in air defence. We are doubling number of Nissan's batteries and also investing in long range air defence systems and we are also expanding our army and other land forces substantially.