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Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s former secretary-general, will make a shock return to the frontline of Norwegian politics as finance minister, because the Nordic nation frets about being caught in the course of a US-EU commerce warfare.
“I’m deeply honoured to have been requested to assist my nation at this important stage,” Stoltenberg, who served as prime minister for 9 years, mentioned on Tuesday.
Stoltenberg, who was head of Nato for a decade till final yr, was recognized for his good relations with US President Donald Trump and for getting Sweden and Finland into the army alliance following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Certainly one of his first jobs might be to cope with the prospect of Norway, which isn’t a member of the EU, probably being hit by tariffs from each Brussels and Washington.
This comes concurrently an intense power debate that final week felled the earlier coalition authorities over whether or not Norway ought to maintain extra of its electrical energy for itself to decrease costs for customers or export it to the EU and UK, a difficulty seen as essential to future relations with Brussels.
Stoltenberg, who served as finance minister from 1996-97, was a charismatic chief of Norway’s one-time dominant Labour social gathering for greater than a decade till taking on the Nato function in 2014. He was set to return to Norway as central financial institution chief in 2022 however was compelled to show down the job after receiving an extension at Nato.
He additionally confirmed he would step down briefly from his function as head of the Munich Safety Convention.
As finance minister Stoltenberg will play a key function in reinvigorating Labour’s fortunes forward of parliamentary elections in September, in addition to coping with issues between Oslo and its two predominant allies, the US and EU.
Stoltenberg grew to become generally known as the “Trump whisperer” throughout his time at Nato for his capability to handle the unstable US president, praising him for his efforts to boost defence spending throughout the alliance.
Norway was set to fulfill Nato’s casual goal of two per cent of GDP spending on defence solely final yr, and spends proportionately far lower than different international locations bordering Russia comparable to Poland, Estonia and Lithuania.
Stoltenberg’s entry into Norway’s authorities comes after the collapse of the two-party minority coalition over whether or not to signal a number of EU power directives into legislation.
The agricultural, Eurosceptic Centre social gathering — led by former finance minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum — determined to go away, arguing Norway wanted a brand new, extra protectionist course on electrical energy.
Labour — led by Stoltenberg’s pal, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre — will now govern alone till the September elections, and has made a number of new electrical energy proposals together with a assured nationwide low-cost value for energy and no new interconnectors for export to Europe.
The latter concern is especially controversial in each Oslo and Brussels. Subsequent yr, two electrical energy interconnectors to Denmark from Norway are resulting from expire and the Labour social gathering has indicated that it’s going to marketing campaign within the elections to not renew them. However this has sparked fury in Denmark, Sweden and throughout the EU.
