Norway/Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Norway/Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Leader	Norway/Minister of Foreign Affairs
Sponsor of	Integrity Action, Thomson Reuters Foundation, CIVICUS, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Atlantic Initiative, Kosovar Civil Society Foundation, Article 19, Global Witness, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, International Civil Society Action Network, International Civil Society Action Network, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Article 36, Berghof Foundation, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Royal United Services, Institute, SIPRI, World Federalist Movement, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Atlantic Council, International Commission of Jurists, The Carter Centre, Balkans Policy Research Group, BBC Media Action, Democratic Voice of Burma, Asian Network for Free Election, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Transparency International, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Clinton Foundation, Norwegian People's Aid, PRIO, NUPI

The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA) is a significant donor to NGOs of the civil society type, and many of the recipients dovetail with NATO objectives. The donor budget was NOK 18 billion in 2020, approximately $2 billion.

Activities

Surprisingly for a country not part of EU, it is financing several Balkans NGOs which are working for EU-accession. The list of donor recipients (right) is just a selection from several hundred projects.

Syria

The Ministry was a significant sponsor of civil supplies during the US/NATO regime change operation in Syria, where 90% of all humanitarian aid went to areas controlled by the 'opposition', which controlled 10% of the population. Some of this aid could be used by the militias (food, clothes etc), other parts could be sold on the open market, to create plausible deniability of funding these militias.Noticeably, this funding has mostly stopped in the 2020 budget.

It also donates through Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), one of its sub-directorates, including to Norwegian People's Aid.

Deep political connections

Clinton Foundation

Full article: Clinton Foundation

From 2007 onward, Norway gave NOK 640 million ($100 million) to projects run by the Clinton Foundation. After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, the support was reduced to almost nothing.

Regime change in Yugoslavia

In a way that illustrates how the CIA's mission has been partially delegated, during a NATO-led regime change operation during the Yugoslav elections in 2000, then Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg spent about NOK 80 million ($15 million) on toppling Slobodan Milosevic.

The 80 million were used for among other things, to pay people to demonstrate against Milosevic, to give free fuel oil to villages where there was big opposition to Milosevic and to pave roads there. "Oil for Democracy" and "Asphalt for Democracy" were the names of the programs "Around 50 million of this was smuggled in various ways from Norway to Belgrade".

"The protesters stormed the parliament building and the Serbian broadcasting headquarters" . A friendly historian disingenuously writes "The subversive aid programs Norway was behind had nothing to do with the United States, although the activity was very reminiscent of what the CIA was notorious for" . It was thus a nominally an independent Norwegian initiative, but it shines through that Norwegian officials at least also spoke inofficially with people from Bill Clinton's administration.

This regime change effort contributed to Norway being rewarded by getting elected to the UN Security Council the following year. The same historian writes: "at the same time as the Milosevic regime disintegrated in Serbia, Foreign Minister Jagland was able to collect another victory for the peace nation. After four rounds of elections and in a fierce battle with Italy, Norway scooped up one of Europe's seats on the UN Security Council . "Money gave the peace nation a whole new tool in foreign policy"

 

Employee on Wikispooks

Employee	Job	Appointed	End	Description
Bjørn Kristvik	Director-general	1985	1988	Leader (ekspedisjonssjef) of the security policy department

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