At the weekend wrote VG’s Hanne Skartveit a comment where she was critical of the government’s foreign policy line and argued that Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) pursues an activist foreign policy that does not serve Norwegian interests.
Professor of political science Janne Haaland Matlary supports this analysis.
– Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has ensured that Norway is increasingly isolated in world politics, says Matlary to Klassekampen.
– By pursuing a policy critical of Israel, the government has destroyed the relationship between Norway and Israel. He has given the Middle East conflict a high priority, despite the fact that it is far less important to Norway than the war in Ukraine.
– Eide conducts a moralizing foreign policy, for example by criticizing that the US has given the go-ahead for Ukrainian use of anti-personnel mines. The sum is that Norway is moving away from the policy that Western countries agree on in international politics, writes Matlary in an email to Klassekampen.
Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide (Ap) rejects that the Norwegian position has moved significantly away from what is the consensus among Western countries.
– I feel that we are very well placed in the Western community. We have not moved, but the Israeli government has, he says.
Eide strongly disagrees that he should put aside criticism of Ukraine’s use of anti-personnel mines with American blessing.
– The ban was negotiated in Oslo, and Norway and Canada were at the forefront of it. If I don’t speak out when Ukraine and the US violate it, it doesn’t help that I speak out when other countries violate it. Friends can also do things we disagree with, says Eide.