The Norwegian government’s site selection for a new NATO command center in Norway was quickly challenged in Parliament on Tuesday. The opposition was just as swiftly swept aside, though, with the government calling any vote on the site “unnatural.”
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was live on national radio early on Tuesday morning, announcing his government’s decision to offer NATO a center close to the Norwegian defense department’s Joint Headquarters at Reitan, outside Bodø in Northern Norway. That’s the location that Norway’s Defense Chief Eirik Kristoffersen had recommended and his professional advice seems to have been taken seriously.
“This is a big and important decision for Norway, for our security and safey,” Støre told state broadcaster NRK after announcing his decision at Bodø’s Stormen Library in the heart of town. He stressed that with both Sweden and Finland now in NATO, it’s important to have a broad picture of all three countries’ airspace over a large Arctic region both on land and, for Norway, at sea.
NATO already has Combined Air Operations Centers (CAOC) in Germany and Spain and now wants a third one in Norway. The center, like the others, will “plan, direct, task, control, coordinate, supervise and support” NATO air operations in the Nordic region and Northern Europe in times of “peace, crisis and conflict,” according to the prime minister’s office.
Støre had to decide between either the location outside Bodø (which has a history as base for Norway’s own earlier fleet of F16 fighter jets) or what’s now called the Rygge Air Force Base about an hour’s drive south of Oslo. Rygge was once a domestic airport catering mostly to cut-rate airlines like Ryanair. Now it hosts a large helicopter fleet and a contingent of US Air Force personnel and equipment.
Rygge has the advantage of being close to Oslo with access to a much larger labour market both during and after establishment of the new NATO center. That’s why several Members of Parliament want a say in the matter, not least those representing the region that had hoped for lots of new job creation,
Støre has long paid special attention, though, to Norway’s Arctic region that he calls the “High North.” It’s been taking on ever stronger strategic importance, not least because of its proximity to Russia and the new security threats that Norway’s and Finland’s neighbour now pose.
“Norway’s most important strategic interests lie in the High North,” Støre said when announcing his decision. He thinks much of NATO’s do, too. “It therefore makes sense for the new allied air operations center to be located in the north. The new center will be situated close to the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, making the Bodø area a hub for the command and control of military operations in our region.”
Norway’s new fleet of F35 fighter jets are now mostly based at Ørland in Trøndelag in the middle of the country. Other strategic aircraft is based at Evenes, even farther north of Bodø. There will thus be a large concentration of air force capability in the north that’s also home to important offshore oil and installations.
The mayors of Bodø and the community where Rygge is based (Råde) both represent the Conservative Party but are predictably split on the issue. Råde Mayor René Rafshol called the government’s decision “horrible” and contended that Rygge would be a “much cheaper” solution for both Norway, NATO and the other Nordic countries, with closer access to the Baltic area where Russia is active.
Bodø Mayor Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, a former government minister himself, was predictably pleased by Støre’s announcement, even saying he’s surprised by the negative reaction in the south. He stressed how Rygge already has received lots of new military presence and will probably get more. Ine Eriksen Søreide, a former defense- and foreign minister for the Conservatives, called for a vote in Parliament on the issue but her party colleague Ingebrigtsen said he thinks she’s unlikely to overrule the defense chief’s own first choice.
“We had two very good alternatives,” Støre said, adding that both Rygge and Bodø could do the job well. “The defense chief recommended Bodø, and our evaluation is based on security policy. A location (for the NATO center) here in the north underscores the northern region’s importance.”
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund