Former Nato chief Stoltenberg returns as Norway finance minister

Oslo — Former Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg became Norway’s new finance minister on Tuesday as part of a cabinet reshuffle, taking up the post as the Nordic country eyes a potential transatlantic trade war.

Appointing the widely popular and well respected Stoltenberg could give the struggling Labour government a boost in opinion polls ahead of September’s parliamentary elections.

The veteran politician was prime minister of Norway in 2000-01 and 2005-13. He headed the Western military alliance for a decade, including during US President Donald Trump’s first term, stepping down last year.

His appointment brings an experienced negotiator and diplomat to Norway’s cabinet at a time of global trade tensions.

“This team is ready to lead Norway in demanding times,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told reporters outside the Royal Palace after the new cabinet met King Harald.

“We will deliver policies that mean something in people’s everyday lives and (we) are aware of the instability in the world which Norway, as a small country, is affected by.”

At Nato, Stoltenberg was dubbed the “Trump whisperer” for convincing the US president to stick with the alliance after he complained during his first term that allies were spending too little on defence and threatened to pull out.

Non-EU Norway, a country of 5.5-million with an export-orientated economy, fears it could be vulnerable to a transatlantic trade war should Trump go ahead with his threat to impose tariffs on EU goods. Norway’s main exports are oil, gas and fish.

The Eurosceptic Centre Party quit the government last Thursday in a dispute over the adoption of EU energy policies, leaving the centre-left Labour to rule alone.

Labour has been lagging in polls ahead of the September vote. Stoltenberg was popular among Norwegians during his time at Nato and could boost Labour’s prospects.

The 65-year-old is an economist by training and was finance minister in 1996-97. He is widely seen as a pragmatist centrist.

In 2022, Stoltenberg was due to become Norway’s central bank chief but did not take up the role after then US president Joe Biden asked him to continue as Nato chief.

During his first stint as prime minister, Stoltenberg set up the so-called spending rule, a self-imposed rule that says that Norwegian governments should not use more than 4% of the total value of the sovereign wealth fund for national budgets.

That rule has since then been reduced to 3% as the fund has grown in value.

Reuters