The Prime Minister's introduction at the press conference with his German and Canadian colleagues

As delivered

Let me wish you heartily welcome to the High North.

The temperature is not particularly “Cold Response”, but we are very motived to be here and meet with our troops.

Let me welcome my two colleagues. Chancellor Merz (Germany) and I have been to Andøya today, a very fruitful visit, and to our Canadian colleague (Mark Carney), you have made the long tour from Canada. – Bienvenu, Mark, ici en Norvège, c'est un grand plaisir.

We are together and let me, just again, thank all the troops, the young men and women, who are doing this unique experience of training together – which is basically what NATO is all about.

I would like to salute Canada and Germany for being such close partners, being such like-minded countries, aware of what we have to do at this moment in time.

We live in a very critical moment, where we need to really come together as an Alliance, and we need to come together when we share values and take common responsibility.

And we really owe it to these young men and women, to deliver politically what is required to have – a safe defense to protect ourselves against war.

We see the terrible effects of war, in its fifth year in Ukraine, and we see war again in the Middle East, and it is our responsibility really to protect ourselves from that.

Norwegian security – let me just say briefly – rests on three legs:

Our own armed forces – we are now revamping all branches of our own armed forces in the coming years.

And the collective defence through NATO.

And strong bilateral ties with Allies.

Now we are strengthening all of these three dimensions.

And I am particularly happy that we can do this now in the Arctic – because for Norway, the Arctic has been the focus of our national security for decades – and in particularly during the last twenty years.

We want to preserve what we call High North – Low tension. We want to be predictable, long-term, and that’s way this exercise, coming every second year, is an important thing that everybody around us know – and they know that we exercise to be at the right level.

And let me finish by just saying that this is not only about Norwegian security. If we take care of the Arctic in a responsible way, we serve Europe, we serve North America, we serve the purpose of the transatlantic relationship.

We are demonstrating here credible defence and credible deterrence, together.

So, again, to my colleagues on both sides here; I am very happy to have you here, this is real friendships, this is real solidarity among states, and I am happy to look forward to hear your interventions here. Please, Chancellor.