The Hurdal platform, the new Norwegian government’s founding document, does not mention commuter housing and travel expense forms very much. On the other hand, it says quite a great deal about peace and stuff, this political document that is staking out the course for the Labor and Center Party government coalition.
In addition to highlighting the Arctic as Norway’s most important peace project, the document also states that “the government wants to contribute to low tension in our immediate neighborhood”. The neighborhood referred to is the one in the High North.
According to the government, low tension is to be achieved “through Norwegian presence and through acting clearly, predictably and reassuring”. A pretty clear message, in other words, yet also quite unfit as a description of the current high tension in the High North.
Just the other day, Norway’s new Defense Minister Odd Roger Enoksen came back to Norway following a visit to his American colleague Lloyd J. Austin III. With him, he brought a not-so-small addendum to the Hurdal Platform, described in the defense magazine Forsvarets forum as well as here at High North News.
“We want more [military] exercise activity. It is increasing already, yet we want better coordination between the allies. This is important for decreasing tension.” Läs artikel