Norway is a Scandinavian country. Its prime minister is Jonas Gahr Støre.
Norway plays a central role in Arctic geopolitics. Tromso, in northern Norway, hosts the annual China-Nordic Arctic Research Centre conference and the larger "Arctic Frontiers" gathering. Støre has said there is no evidence of Chinese naval ships off Greenland and noted that China's Arctic scientists have only a limited presence in Norway: one research station in the Svalbard archipelago. Nonetheless, he has said that Russia and China pose the chief intelligence threats to Norway "and their prime focus is in the north". Norway has intensified monitoring of China's activities after previous research was found to be for potential military purposes. Norway was also upset by nationalistic displays at China's research station in Svalbard.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit married Prince Haakon, heir to the throne, in 2001. She has a son from a prior relationship who is on trial on 38 criminal counts, including four of rape. Epstein's files included flirtatious exchanges with the princess: "U are very charming u know," she wrote in 2012, four years after Epstein's conviction for soliciting sex from a minor. She apologised, saying she had shown bad judgment.
Thorbjørn Jagland, a former prime minister, was head of the Nobel peace-prize committee and the Council of Europe when Epstein wrote to him: "Putin is welcome to join for dinner." Mr Jagland seemed to discuss visiting Epstein's island, and appeared to apologise for bringing his wife: "I can't keep it going only with young women as you know." Norway's office of economic crimes is investigating him for possible corruption.
The office is also investigating two diplomats, Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød-Larsen, who helped negotiate the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians in the 1990s. Mr Rød-Larsen called Epstein his "best friend".
A survey in 2018 found that Norwegians, more than any other western Europeans, rate their culture as superior to others'. Ketil Raknes of Kristiania University in Oslo says Norwegians may not appreciate how much of their wealth is due to oil rather than virtue.
Norway has long looked to Britain as a security guarantor. When Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940 the royal family and government fled to Britain; British intelligence trained Norwegian resistance fighters and helped them launch covert operations from Shetland. After the war America became Norway's most significant ally; both countries were founding members of NATO. But "in every Norwegian's mind" Britain ranks in second place, according to Tore Hattrem, Norway's ambassador in London.
In September 2025 Norway agreed to buy at least five British Type 26 frigates in a deal worth £10bn ($13.6bn), against rival bids from America, France and Germany. The Lunna House Agreement, an Anglo-Norwegian defence pact signed in December 2025, confirmed that the frigates will form part of a joint fleet designed to track submarines and other vessels in the North Atlantic. The pact also increased collaboration in naval technology such as torpedoes and allowed the Royal Marines to train year-round in Norway for the first time. Britain plans to double the number of troops deployed in Norway to 2,000 over three years.
Norway's defence chief warns that Russia could try to seize a chunk of Norwegian territory to create a buffer around its nuclear arsenal on the Kola Peninsula. The Royal Marines' reconnaissance, surveillance and intelligence capabilities could be valuable in identifying high-value Russian targets.
Norway provided nearly 70% of Britain's gas imports in 2025. The two countries agreed in May 2025 to increase clean-energy co-operation in the North Sea, where Norwegian firms value British expertise in offshore wind. Norway had only 0.1 gigawatts of offshore wind installed by the end of 2025.
Norway's annual GDP per person is $97,000, compared with Britain's $60,000. Its population of less than 6m is dwarfed by Britain's 70m. Norway seeks a bigger partner to show regional leadership as America pushes Europe to provide more of its own security.
Norway's GDP per person is roughly $90,000, behind only city-states, tax havens and Switzerland. Since 1991 the government has amassed a sovereign-wealth fund worth $2.2trn, or $400,000 for every one of its 5.6m people. Proceeds sustain one of the world's most generous welfare states. As the oil windfall and investment returns have doubled the fund's size over the past decade, it has made Norwegian politicians profligate, according to Martin Bech Holte, an economist and former McKinsey consultant whose 2025 book "The Country that Became Too Rich" was the year's non-fiction bestseller. Although the fund invests only abroad to avoid crowding out the domestic private sector, it funnels money back to the government, which uses it to plug the gap between spending and taxes. In 2008 that payout was a modest NKr36bn, or less than 5% of outlays. By 2025 NKr414bn ($40bn), a fifth of spending, came courtesy of the oil fund.
In elections in September 2025 the centre-right Progress party, which argued that Norway "throws more money at problems" and needs to stop, made the most gains.
Average household debt is 250% of annual income, the highest in Europe. The central bank is reluctant to raise interest rates in the face of high household borrowing, which has weakened the krone and repelled foreign investors. Worker productivity has stopped growing and real wages are starting to fall.
Medical services cost 30% more in Norway than in the European Union on average. Denmark, which spends about as much per person, has reduced waiting times for routine operations twice as fast. Norway's rate of secondary-school and university drop-outs is among the highest in Europe. Its higher-education system offers as many degrees as you want free of charge, plus generous loans, encouraging people to delay and extend their studies. More than 70% of unskilled service workers born in Norway have masters degrees. People from immigrant backgrounds do 100,000 research jobs in science, technology and engineering, half the total; another 100,000 will need filling by 2030. Nearly one in ten Norwegians in their 20s are unemployed, compared with one in 20 Danes.
The Munch museum in Oslo, a 13-storey slab of recycled aluminium and glass built on the harbour front, was completed in 2021 at a cost of $350m—a decade late and $200m over budget. Renovations of the parliament building took four years rather than one and cost six times as much as expected. In 2023 the government funnelled NKr250bn, half its take from taxes on labour and capital, to foreign aid and domestic charities, compared with below 10% in Britain.
Norway has never joined the EU. Norwegians voted narrowly against joining the bloc in a 1994 referendum. Norway is a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), adopting EU rules in exchange for single-market access but with little say over how those rules are made. The majority of Norwegian voters remain Eurosceptic, but support for joining has risen above 30%—during the 2010s it was usually below 20%. Norway's opposition wants a vote on whether to join. If Iceland succeeds in restarting its accession talks, Norwegians will watch closely to see what deal it gets.
The Andøya Space Centre, located beside a Norwegian fjord, is one of three spaceports vying to offer orbital launches directly from continental Europe (the others are Esrange in Sweden and SaxaVord in Scotland's Shetland Islands). Andøya has dedicated an entire launch pad to Isar Aerospace, a German startup. High-latitude launches from these sites are more fuel-efficient for polar and sun-synchronous orbits, which pass over the same points on Earth at the same local time each day—ideal for tracking troop movements, new construction or retreating glaciers.
<doogie> Thinking is dangerous. It leads to ideas.