LATIKA M BOURKE: Norway Defence Minister Tore Sandvik berates Trump over Russia-Ukraine war

Norway’s Defence Minister says Donald Trump should stop financing Russia’s war after the US President lifted sanctions to strike a deal to buy diesel from Russia, due to a global supply crunch caused by the US and Israeli war against Iran.

Many European leaders have been reluctant to publicly criticise Mr Trump’s weekend diesel deal for fear of upsetting the US, which forms the backbone of the NATO Alliance.

But in an exclusive interview with The Nightly on the sidelines of the Warsaw Security Forum in Poland, Tore Sandvik gave a rare public rebuke of the US President.

“We don’t agree on that, and I’m not sure if it will stand, because the President says that he has an agreement on a ceasefire or energy infrastructure but today, when Zelensky was talking to this conference, the shelling continued,” he said.

“So Putin is not doing what he says to the American president.

“I think the US still should sanction Russian oil and diesel and export, not financing the war.”

Italy’s centre-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was initially friendly with President Trump but fell out with him, told the Italian parliament that the decision was questionable and risky.

“These are factors we cannot ignore and they contradict the actions taken so far by Western nations, including the United States, to push Putin to the negotiating table,” she said.

President Trump and Mr Putin’s diesel deal blew open a new public rift between Mr Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who accused the US of “betrayal” and slowing down Elon Musk’s satellite service Starlink, which provides the connection needed to guide drones. Mr Musk said on X that the military connection was controlled “by the US military and ultimately POTUS” and not his company SpaceX.

Speaking to the British broadcaster Piers Morgan before visiting the UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham at Number 10 Downing Street, as well as King Charles III, Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump was pushing him in the wrong direction against Ukraine.

“It’s a pity we are losing a strong partner,” Mr Zelensky said of the United States.

“I don’t know who is pushing him to not the right side, this is not the right side of history.”

Mr Trump has reheated his calls for Mr Zelensky to face an election, something forbidden by Ukraine’s constitution during wartime and declared a ceasefire on energy assets, which Russia immediately violated.

The US wants Ukraine to stop hitting Russian oil refineries because of the increase in oil prices caused by Russia’s illegal invasion in 2022 and exacerbated by the war in Iran, which the US and Israel began in February this year.

Europe and the United States sanctioned Russian oil at the start of the full-scale invasion to deprive Mr Putin of funds to pay for his war.

Mr Sandvik said that Europe would not be lifting its sanctions on Russian oil.

“I don’t think we can change Putin’s ambitions, but we can change the calculus. One of the calculations you have to consider is that the economy is going bad. And oil is financing the Russian economy, so we need to sanction Russia,” he said.

Trump needs to focus on China, not Europe

But Mr Sandvik was more supportive of the United States focusing on China, saying it was needed to prevent South Korea and Japan obtaining nuclear weapons.

He said Norway supported Europe taking on the greater burden in NATO so that the US could focus on being a reliable ally in the Indo-Pacific, to prevent a nuclear build-up.

“The most important thing we are going to do is to do the burden shifts in our near waters so the US can stand by their security guarantees in the Pacific because we know they will be stretched so we need to take more responsibility,” he said.

He said it was important the US did deal with the threat posed by China.

“Also to hinder proliferation of nuclear capacities because we know that South Korea and Japan, they have the capacity to get nuclear weapons,” he said.

“No we don’t want any more nations to have them, because that’s the most dangerous thing. That’s the biggest threat against humanity. And we need to remember that we need to again learn how dangerous atomic nuclear weapons are, and therefore the nuclear umbrella from the US keeps that down.

“I think it’s a disaster that North Korea has developed this ability, but also, it’s even more important that the nuclear deterrent from US is considered safe and good and also for Japan and South Korea, but also New Zealand and Japan.”

While both Japan and South Korea have begun flagging a debate around the nuclear question, discussions held at the Warsaw Security Forum under Chatham House rule played down this prospect, because of the high costs of acquiring the capability, compared to the advantages of conventional deterrence.

Norway says China operating in the Arctic and Antarctic

Norway and Australia have been building their defence ties in recent years with the country’s defence ministers making historic first visits.

He thanked Australia for continuing to train Ukrainian soldiers.

Norway has also taken part in the major US-Australia military exercise Talisman Sabre and is planning to participate against next year.

The country is buying British frigates and last year its Navy accompanied the UK’s Carrier Strike Group on its deployment to the Indo-Pacific.

“Norway has a large merchant fleet, the fifth biggest in the world so for us, freedom of navigation is really important, so sailing through the Suez, sailing through the waters down in the Pacific it’s a part of also of signalling,” he said.

The two countries are co-building missiles in Australia via the Norwegian defence company Kongsberg and the Norweigan military has joined in training.

“We need the industrial capacity from the Pacific countries; it’s important because Europe needs to step up but we are also a bit slow in building the industrial capacity so we need to do that with friends.”

Mr Sandvik said he was hopeful that New Zealand might also contribute to the co-build, and help solve Europe’s slow rearmament.

“We look at the way at the world in the same way. We want a rule-based order in the world,” he said.

“And also we have discussions with our friends in Australia and New Zealand about Antarctica because they see China leaning in Antarctica, the way we see they’re leaning in in the Arctic with icebreakers.

“And they’re playing the long game of getting natural resources, but also to spread out, so we have a lot to learn from Australia, they learn from us and we learn from them.”