Norwegian parties supported a five-year, $7.4 billion aid package for Ukraine totaling 75 billion Norwegian kroner ($7.4 billion) on Thursday.
Apart for Rodt (The Red Party), a minor far-left grouping, all parties in the Storting, Norway’s parliament, supported the proposal that the center-left government presented on February 6 for the first time.
Between 2023 and 2027, the plan commits 15 billion kroner yearly in civilian and military funding.
The wide agreement indicates that the funding will continue to flow regardless of the party composition of the government that emerges following the 2025 Norwegian parliamentary elections.
“Now you’re setting a very important precedent for long-term financial support to a country that defends its independence and the right of every nation to live in accordance with generally recognised international norms”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told MPs via a video link.
The majority of Norwegian parties also backed the government’s request to raise help to poor nations most impacted by the Ukrainian conflict by 5 billion kroners, mostly due to the rise in food costs.
As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Norway has become Europe’s primary supplier of natural gas, profiting from increasing prices and earning it the label of “war profiteer”
“This is a notion I categorically reject,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told AFP in an interview at the end of January.
The aid package was named after Fridtjof Nansen, a renowned Norwegian polar explorer and politician (1861-1930) who pushed humanitarian assistance to the USSR in the early 1920s amid a catastrophic famine.
In 1922, Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts as well as his work with refugees during World War I.