If Norway were to hypothetically cut off support to the U.S. Navy, Trump would return the favor.
Donald Trump’s call for NATO members to increase their defense expenditures to 5 percent of GDP and his new policy toward Russia and Ukraine have caused quite a stir among NATO members.
Some NATO members, particularly former Eastern Bloc/Warsaw Pact members like Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland, are answering this wake-up call with vigor and vim. Meanwhile, even some previously miserly Western NATO members like Belgium are starting to pick up the slack.
However, other NATO member nations—or at least certain factions within those member nations—are being more vocal about what they consider to be Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine. They are manifesting that vocal displeasure in the form of partial economic boycotts. A prime example is Norway: one of that country’s major fuel companies has announced that it is cutting off its supply to the U.S. Navy to protest America’s new Ukraine policy.
But does this incident represent a truly significant break in U.S.-Norway relations, or is it (to paraphrase Shakespeare) “Much ado about relatively little?”
(Unlike its Scandinavian neighbors Finland and Sweden, Norway has been a member of NATO since the alliance’s 1949 inception.)
A Symbolic Act of Protest
The Norwegian fuel company Haltbakk Bunkers, which was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Aure, with branch offices in Kristiansund, Evenes, Bergen, and the capital city of Oslo. It is the largest operator of bunker tankers along the Norwegian coast. Owned by CEO Gunnar Gran, Haltbakk Bunkers has more than seventy employees and produces over 1,000 products (fuels, lubricants, disinfectants for aquaculture, and dispersants for oil spills).
In a since-deleted Facebook post, the company declared, “Huge credit to the president of Ukraine for restraining himself and for keeping calm even though the USA put on a backstabbing TV show. It made us sick … No fuel to Americans!”
However, as my National Interest colleague Peter Suciu reported on March 4, 2025, “It was a largely symbolic gesture as the company doesn’t have a fixed contract with the U.S. Navy.”
The Norwegian Government’s Side of the Story
Norwegian government officials moved quickly to distance themselves from Haltbakk Bunkers’ act of grandstanding. As Reuters quoted Norwegian Defence Minister Tore Sandvik:
“We have seen reports raising concerns about support for U.S. Navy vessels in Norway. This is not in line with the Norwegian government’s policy. American forces will continue to receive the supply and support they require from Norway.”
The Bigger Picture
Discomfort with the Trump administration’s Ukraine policy notwithstanding, the Norwegian military still won’t want to bite the metaphorical hand that feeds it. As another one of my National Interest colleagues, Maya Carlin, reported on the same day as Suciu’s article, the Royal Norwegian Air Force received three new F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation fighters, thus bringing that Scandinavian country’s total F-35 fleet strength to forty-nine. Three more of these warbirds are expected to be delivered to the Royal Norwegian Air Force this summer.
Now, given Trump’s well-known “transactional leadership” style, and his firm belief in reciprocity and tit-for-tat approaches to foreign relations—as can be seen from his controversial tariff policy—it can reasonably inferred that if Norway were to hypothetically cut off support to the U.S. Navy as a matter of official policy, Trump would return the favor by freezing those future F-35 deliveries.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: DVIDS.
