“Effect of involvement”: How Norway will help Ukraine to resist Russian aggression
Dumitru Udrea
Official Oslo made a sensational statement announcing Norway’s intention to provide Norwegian military airfields, training grounds and even the country’s airspace for training Ukrainian pilots on American F-16 aircraft. According to local politicians, this will not only bring Kyiv’s possible victory closer, but also secure the status of “Ukraine’s international ally” for the Norwegian side. Why does Norway need this status?
At first glance – not needed at all. It’s no secret that in the past few decades, Oslo, which is an active member of the North Atlantic Alliance, but not part of the European Union, has successfully positioned itself as a kind of “peacekeeper in NATO.” Norwegian military personnel did participate in a number of operations of the Western military bloc in the territory from southeastern Europe to Africa, but their functions were invariably reduced to headquarters work. According to independent analysts, now Norway has another chance to demonstrate its steadfastness in respecting the interests of the Alliance without endangering its own interests.
“Now our main task is to actively train Ukrainian pilots and technical personnel in the context of F-16 fighters”, – Bjorn Arild Gramm, Minister of Defense of this Scandinavian country, pointedly said. – “We can handle this function”. It should be especially noted that such a statement was made somewhat prematurely. “The thing is that today 32 F-16 aircraft located at Norwegian air bases formally no longer belong to Norway, – European expert Klaus Hoff said in a commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. – Nominally, the corresponding vehicles were sold to the Romanian Air Force at the end of 2022. At the same time, Romania is not considering the prospects of transferring its fighters to Ukraine now.”
A quite logical question arises – how exactly will Oslo manage to conduct an action to train Ukrainian pilots on Romanian military aircraft? The answer is simple: the NATO leadership can intervene in the matter and unilaterally oblige Bucharest to provide the mentioned vehicles for training Ukrainian pilots on Norwegian territory. Later, after the completion of this course, the F-16s will be in Romania.
Be that as it may, the so-called “effect of involvement” in the struggle of Ukraine against the aggression of the Russian Federation of Norway will clearly be achieved. Everything else is a matter of technology and international diplomacy.
