Key facts
- Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland will work toward a common defence deal, Sandvik said.
- Sandvik said the aim is to integrate the Nordic armed forces more closely within NATO.
- Nordic military leadership flagged the need to harmonize laws on moving personnel and equipment across borders.
- Sandvik said there is potential to remove practical obstacles and adapt laws and regulations.
- Norway and Finland both share a land border with Russia, the report said.
Norway's defence minister, Tore Sandvik, said on November 12 that Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland will work toward establishing a common defence deal to strengthen NATO's overall ability to deter and defend, Reuters reported from Oslo.
All five countries are NATO members, with Finland joining in 2023 and Sweden in 2024. Since then the Nordics have worked to improve cooperation, including through joint military and civilian preparedness exercises. "We have already come a long way within the framework of NATO. We exercise and train together more than ever before. Now we want to take the cooperation one step further and integrate the Nordic armed forces even more closely," Sandvik said in a statement.
Sandvik said the countries' military leadership identified the need to harmonize laws and regulations, for instance when moving military personnel and equipment across borders. "We see that there is potential to remove practical obstacles and adapt laws and regulations to make it possible to operate even more smoothly across national borders," he said.
The report described the move as the latest example of Nordic countries stepping up defence preparedness, citing Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and uncertainty over the United States as NATO's ultimate security backstop. It said all the Nordics have steeply increased defence budgets and are now in the top league of defence spenders per capita in NATO. Norway and Finland both share a land border with Russia.
The report said the region has seen a spate of incidents, including drone intrusions and cables and pipelines being sabotaged, that have increased security concerns. Russia has consistently denied it poses a threat to its Nordic neighbours and regards accusations that it does so as scaremongering.