PM meeting with Prime Minister Jonas Støre of Norway: 13 May 2022

The Prime Minister welcomed Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Støre to Downing Street today.

They discussed the security situation in northern Europe and the Prime Minister updated on his visits to Finland and Sweden this week. Both leaders underscored their full support for any sovereign choice made by Nordic partners to enhance their security. The Prime Minister and Prime Minister Støre agreed that neither NATO nor the Nordic region posed a threat and that the longstanding policy of ‘High North, low tension’ had created decades of stability and prosperity for the area. 

In that context, they stressed that Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine and hostility towards neighbouring states was totally unjustified and already proving to be a profound miscalculation. The Prime Minister welcomed Norway’s defensive support to Ukraine in recent weeks and the leaders agreed to work together to provide much-needed training and equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

They also agreed on the need for NATO allies to back Ukraine politically, taking a unified approach that avoids giving Putin licence to further twist the knife in the wound of Ukraine.

The leaders discussed the pressing need to increase the supply of sustainable energy. The Prime Minister stressed the importance of the UK-Norway relationship on this, and remarked that the sky was the limit as far as collaboration between our countries on this issue goes.

Following their meeting, the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Støre signed a new Joint Declaration on the UK-Norway relationship. A declaration which, Prime Minister Støre observed, will mean that Norway cooperates more extensively with the UK than any other country in the world.