A turning point for the Norges Fund: the Government wants it to invest in nuclear weapons

Norway is expected to authorise its sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management – one of the world’s largest, managing over 2,300 billion dollars – to invest in major Western defence groups that are currently excluded from the portfolio due to their involvement in the production of nuclear weapons. This is the recommendation issued yesterday by a commission appointed by the Oslo government which, as part of a wider review of the ethical guidelines governing the Norges sovereign wealth fund, could lead to investments worth tens of billions of dollars in defence companies, should the reform be adopted by the Norwegian government and Parliament.

Under current legislation, as reported by Reuters, the Norges fund is not permitted to acquire stakes even in companies such as Airbus, Boeing, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, as they contribute to the production of nuclear weapons.

The new rules proposed by the government commission, however, provide for an exception for companies based in a state that possesses nuclear weapons under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and which is a NATO ally of Norway. “Several European and US companies that manufacture components for nuclear weapons could therefore be included once again,” the commission stated in its proposal.

Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, the former Secretary-General of NATO, had asked the committee to review the ethical guidelines, citing changes in the global security landscape and Norway’s reliance on NATO’s nuclear umbrella. Other defence firms on the list of exclusions include Safran, Thales, BWX Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Fluor, General Dynamics, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Jacobs Solutions, L3Harris Technologies and L&T.

The committee’s proposals will form the basis for the government’s decisions, as part of an annual policy document on the sovereign wealth fund due to be published in spring 2027. Pending the proposal that was presented yesterday, the Norwegian Parliament had already suspended the state fund’s divestments on ethical grounds last year, yielding, according to some observers, to pressure from the US administration that began during President Donald Trump’s term. It is worth noting that more than half of the Norges Fund’s assets are invested in the United States.