Norwegian government decided to increase military spending to at least 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026 in accordance with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) guidelines, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said at a press conference.
"We will increase our defence spending to at least 2 percent of Norway's gross domestic product by 2026. We will draw up a plan setting out how we will achieve this," said the Prime Minister in a statement.
His announcement follows an agreement in 2014 by all NATO member countries to meet a 2 per cent of GDP defence investment guideline by 2024, Xinhua news agency reported.
Even though Norway already has good operational national defence forces, there is a "need to enhance our own defence capability in light of the growing instability, tension and polarisation in the world today", said Store.
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According to the Prime Minister, Norway's national defence is built on three pillars: military forces, bilateral agreements with other countries and NATO membership.
However, Store said that Norway's economic reality made it "difficult to manage spending based on a percentage of the nominal GDP." But he also told the press that "only the US spends more per capita on defence than Norway".
