Uh, could you maybe just assess, y- you know, maybe, uh, you know, describe this, this threat from your perspective, and then, and then what more we can do to counter it?

Well, I think you're absolutely right, and I remember back in 2016 when cyberattacks was, um, made part of an Article 5 situation, and that, that really was, uh, a watershed, I would say, in, in the NATO context.

But it was necessary because this is what Russia does every day.

Um, and they are doing cyberattacks.

They are doing, uh, different kind of sabotage, preparing for attacks, preparing for sabotage, and they are doing influence operations, a lot of them.

Uh, and of course, they are designed to break up, uh, the support for NATO.

It's designed to, first and foremost right now, break up the support for Ukraine.

Could you maybe share your thoughts about what more we can do to compete effectively with this axis of aggressors and, as you mentioned, take on the full dimension of the threat, including, I would say, a major threat of, of economic aggression, uh, from China and the way it's, it's sort of weaponized its predatory economy, its mercantilist economy against, uh, our free market economies?

How do you see the United

States? Well, I think for a country like Norway, the U.S.

is our closest ally.

And we work so closely together on so many topics, spanning from security policy, defense intelligence to trade.

The relationship with the U.S. is strong also because we have mutual benefits from having this relationship.

I mean, we are a country with Russia as our neighbor, with the high North's as a theater where things have been relatively calm and low tension until now.

Now we are seeing that things are changing.

It happens on your tongue where your taste buds are, but it's much more complicated than just what is happening on your tongue.