NORWAY POSITIVE ON NATO REQUEST FOR ISAF FORCES

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000573

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/29/2017
TAGS: NATO PINS PREL MOPS MARR NO
SUBJECT: NORWAY POSITIVE ON NATO REQUEST FOR ISAF FORCES
AND TRAINERS: OFFICIAL NATO REQUEST NEEDED TO GET TELEMARK
BATTALION

REF: A. A: SECSTATE 71547


B. B:OSLO DAO IIR 6 872 0058 07 "ASK NOW FOR FEB 08
DEPLOYMENT"

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission Kevin M Johnson
for reasons 1.4 b and d


1. (C) Embassy delivered reftel A points to Ministry of
Defense and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting that
Norway provide two OMLTs, 15 trainers for CSTC-A and fill the
remaining billets committed to ISAF HQ. Embassy also raised
the issue of sending the Telemark battalion to Afghanistan in

2008. MOD contacts did not want to respond explicitly but
implied that the requests for trainers and OMLT teams would
be answered positively at the June Ministerial. They stated
that they were working with Ministry of Justice to determine
the level of police participation in Norway's potential
contributions to CSTC-A. Both the Ministry of Defense and
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs felt that fulfilling these
commitments would not be a matter of political debate as they
were not large additional deployments. Deploying the
Telemark battalion is a different matter and would be a
controversial political move.


2. (C) As described in reftel B, Embassy Oslo, and certain
members of Norway's Ministry of Defense have long advocated a
formal request from NATO for Norway to send the Telemark
battalion to Afghanistan. The Norwegian Telemark Battalion,
which is currently committed to NATO's NRF 8, will come off
that commitment in July 0f 2007. It will spend the rest of
2007 re-equipping and training. It would be available at the
earliest in February 2008, although it is more likely that it
would be available in late 2008. This is due to the time
needed to prepare the battalion and perhaps more importantly,
to lay the necessary political groundwork for the government
to approve any such deployment. Norwegian defense officials
are in favor of a deployment and privately have suggested
that a formal NATO request would help the Minister of Defense
and the CHOD make the case for such a deployment within the
government.


3. (C) MOD leadership has been arguing within the government
that Norway will eventually need to deploy the Telemark
battalion to Afghanistan to remain in good standing within
the alliance. MOD would prefer an earlier, rather than later
deployment as it would then have the best opportunity to work
with traditional allies such as the UK, US, the Netherlands
and Denmark. Norwegian MOD officials tell us that the UK
requests the Telemark battalion about once a month but that
it will take a NATO request to make the government start
considering such a deployment. A decision to deploy the
Telemark battalion would be a major political issue once
announced and it would take a concerted effort by the
government to convince their Socialist Left coalition
partners to accept such a step. Embassy will continue to
advocate the deployment of the Telemark battalion but it will
be NATO pressure that will ultimately have the greatest
effect on the government's decision makers.
Johnson