Military power of Norway & NATO

Norway is a country located in Northern Europe with an area of 323,802 km² (land boundries: 2,566 km and costline 25,148 km (includes mainland 2,650 km, as well as long fjords, numerous small islands, and minor indentations 22,498 km; length of island coastlines 58,133 km)). The capital of Norway is Oslo. The number of inhabitants is 5,391,369.

Norway is a member of NATO and was one of the original 12 countries to sign the North Atlantic Treaty. The Norwegian Armed Forces cooperate closely with the militaries of other Nordic countries through the Nordic Defense Cooperation, which consists of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The Norwegian Armed Forces inventory includes mostly imported European and USA weapons systems, as well as a domestically-produced equipment. The US is the leading supplier of weapons systems.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.