Norway urged to drop ‘crazy’ ban on investment in defence companies

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Norway should buy a ban, which prevents its sovereign wealth fund, investment in defense companies such as Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin and Honeywell, said two main opposition parties.

Norway $ 1,8TN Oil Foundation Since the early 2000s, it has been banned from most defensive companies when the country’s parliament forced moral rules for banning groups that are part of nuclear or cluster weapons.

Talking to the financial times before the last parliamentary elections this year, the parties to the central right conservative and progress say they want to reverse that position and Norway, which benefits from the US NATO nuclear canopy.

Former Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the current leader of the conservatives said that it was “ironic” that Norway had rules that excluded nuclear weapons.

“Today we have restrictions that the oil fund cannot invest in the defense industry. We are going to remove them. He said.

Progress MP Hans Andreas Limi has provided the bill of private members to remove the ban on nuclear weapons, which is now forces to exclude companies, including Northrop Grumman, BAE systems, total dynamics and Safra. Limmy has not been reported before.

“It’s hypocritical. We are members of NATO, we are very dependent on the security that the United States can give us from the same companies, but we cannot invest.

The position of the parties comes because the world’s investors re-evaluate their An reluctance before After Russia’s full invasion of 2022, having defense companies, compulsory Europe, in particular, to sharply increase its military spending.

Actions Norwegian Oil Foundation – What are the average percentage of each listed global shares? “It will give a signal effect to other investors,” Limi said.

The foundation is subject to exceptions to some product of the Norwegian parliament, including cigarettes, coal and parts for nuclear and cluster weapons. The last exclusion stopped the major defense companies such as Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin from 2005-06.

The Norwegian government and its new Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg is growing great pressure, former NATO leader Yens Stoltenberg to change it.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Norway Ida Volden, which contains the oil fund, used to say that the country “must be open to the possibility that can be morally acceptable can change.”

A high-ranking Norwegian official said.

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance refuses to comment on the fact that it has received such a question from the parliament and first responded to it.

Conservatives and the parties to the progress have long predicted that they will win the September parliamentary elections and form the next government. But it doubts the popularity of Stoltenberg’s return to the former Prime Minister, a local policy. Right and left blocks are now level.

Limi says that defense investments will be “very beneficial” for the foundation.