BRUSSELS (VG) Peace Prize winner Beatrice Fihn reacts to the fact that NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg goes to great lengths to warn NATO countries such as Norway against participating in international meetings on nuclear disarmament.
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“We are living in the most dangerous time, under the threat of nuclear weapons, since the missile crisis in 1962. It is irresponsible and disappointing that Stoltenberg is trying to prevent member states from engaging in disarmament,” Beatrice Fihn told VG on Thursday night.
In 2017, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on behalf of the organization ICAN, which received the award for being a leader in the work on an international ban on nuclear weapons – a UN treaty to which no NATO country has acceded.
This ban will now be followed up by the recent Støre government, which has announced that Norway will be an observer at a UN conference for the countries that have joined the nuclear weapons ban.
Wednesday morning notified Stoltenberg to VG that the new Norwegian approach to the nuclear ban will be a topic at NATO’s meeting of defense ministers, which is currently taking place in Brussels.
“We expect that this is something that NATO countries will address with their allies, and that it will be discussed among the defense ministers here in NATO,” said Stoltenberg.
Not very big step
Beatrice Fihn continues to lead ICAN, the international campaign to ban nuclear weapons.
She and the campaign have spoken positively to the Støre government’s plan to observe this conference:
– It is a very welcome step. But it is not a very big step, says Fihn.
– But there is growing support for income for a ban in many NATO countries. When Norway now goes first, there is hope that others will follow. Many people are uncomfortable with the fact that the United States and NATO headquarters in Brussels must motivate obstacles that nations that want to take their own initiatives in disarmament can not freely consider the treaty, she adds.
NATO countries in process
The ICAN chief says that there are processes in the government negotiations in Germany on how to deal with a nuclear weapons ban. That the government of Belgium wants to engage in a ban on nuclear weapons together with other NATO countries. That the Parliament of Spain is discussing it. That the political leadership Scotland is also talking about bans.
Earlier on Thursday, Minister of Defense Odd Roger Enoksen (Sp) stated – on behalf of the Støre government – that Norway does not intend to join the nuclear weapons ban in the UN Treaty:
– We do not intend to sign any agreement. We stand firmly behind NATO’s line. It will not be possible – unfortunately – with unilateral disarmament. It will also not be something we want to work for or can defend, he said.
But at the same time, he states that the government will send observers to the nuclear ban meeting:
– Then we plan to participate. We will listen and see what happens within the treaty work. But it is by no means a breach of NATO’s line, Enoksen said.
Disagree
Stoltenberg argued as follows:
– NATO’s goal is a world free of nuclear weapons. But as long as there are nuclear weapons in the world, we must have the opportunity to deter nuclear weapons. We do not believe in unilateral disarmament, says Stoltenberg when asked by VG.
– That with unilateral disarmament is not true, however, Beatrice Fihn claims:
– The treaty deals with negotiated multilateral disarmament agreements, she says.
Stoltenberg’s communications consultant Sissel Kruse Larsen states that he has nothing more to add.
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