|
Norway: Army cancels NATO exercises - the cuts are "unproblematic"
As NATO countries prepare for next week's Oslo meeting, the Norwegian army announces it will cancel NATO military exercises to cut costs.In an effort to cut expenses, the Norwegian Armed Forces this week announced it will not participate in two scheduled military exercises involving NATO countries. The announcement comes only a week before the scheduled NATO conference in Oslo, reports newspaper Aftenposten. Fearing a repeat of the 2004 financial crisis, the army said it realised it had to take drastic measures to reduce expenses, despite what could be called "bad timing." The army, aiming to cut costs by NOK 750 million (about USD 130 million) by the end of the year, will withdraw its soldiers from NATO's "Operation Active Endeavour," and from the exercise "Cold Response," which is not organised by NATO per se, but in which a large number of NATO countries participate. Armed Forces chief Sverre Diesen said that cancellations of military exercises were not "unusual," but that the army had tried to shield NATO as much as possible. "Our participation in "Operation Active Endeavour" is not big anyway," he said, adding: "Our large contributions, such as in Afghanistan, will continue." "Maybe" Parliamentary Secretary Espen Barth Eide (Labour) in the Ministry of Defence, who will speak at the NATO conference next week, thinks the cuts are "unproblematic," and said that he had not yet heard reactions from NATO. The defense cuts were not made based on an economic downturn. A bit further down the page is this triumphant blast : Economic growth leaves others in the dust. In other words, "Here, have a herring." Posted by: mrp 2007-09-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=198803 |