Norway hopes that the Indian leadership will use its contacts with its Russian counterparts to press for a truce in Ukraine, as Oslo and New Delhi have a common goal of ending the conflict, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Sture said.
Meanwhile, Storr said that while he respects India’s “historic ties” with Russia and its energy needs as a growing economy, there is also a need to put “more pressure” on Russia to come to the negotiating table to end the war in Ukraine.
Storr, who spoke to a small group of Indian reporters on Monday after concluding his bilateral contacts with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Oslo, said diplomatic efforts to end the wars in Ukraine and West Asia figured in the discussions. In public remarks at two separate events on Monday, Storr noted the differences between the two sides but made clear that these did not stand in the way of close cooperation between India and Norway in key areas such as clean energy, trade and investment.
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He added: “We have to understand this question based on history, there are historical relationships [between India and Russia] I respect that. He said: “India is a huge country, and it needs its energy supplies. At the same time, it has always been seen that in order to end this horrific war in Ukraine, which is killing people, destroying so much, and creating a great deal of instability, there must be more pressure on Russia to come to the table and make a real effort to end this war.”
He added: “I know that the Indian Prime Minister and the Indian leadership have channels with the Russian leadership and I hope they can use them for a ceasefire. I believe that regarding ending this war, Prime Minister Modi and I have the same goal.”
He added that Norway believes that restricting Russian energy sales is one way to put pressure on Moscow to end the conflict. “You have to understand our positions from our starting point and I respect them to understand where Prime Minister Modi is coming from. We have not discovered heated differences creating problems between India and Norway,” Storr said.
Storr responded to a question about whether Norway expects India to choose between Russia and the Arctic Council to cooperate on important research in the Arctic region, by saying that Oslo wants New Delhi, in light of important scientific advances, to be “part of the research on the Arctic climate, which is important for India’s climate,” and discussions on the law of the sea.
“The Arctic is huge, and the problem now is that continued cooperation in the Arctic Council is hampered by the fact that Russia is waging a large-scale war in Europe,” he said. “This has limited the operations of the Arctic Council.”
India has had observer status in the Arctic Council — which includes Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States — since 2013, and maintains the Himadri research station on Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago.
Storr said the meeting with Modi was a useful opportunity to exchange assessments on the wars in Ukraine and West Asia, and how India and Norway have been affected and can contribute to diplomatic solutions. The two sides also talked about moving forward with the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) between India and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which includes Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Iceland.
There is great interest among Norwegian companies to invest in India, “which is good for Indian jobs, Indian welfare, but also for Norwegian jobs,” Storr said. He said the new green strategic partnership will advance cooperation in carbon capture and storage and renewable energy storage.
The goal of generating $100 billion in investments in India under TEPA is a “bold ambition,” Storr said. “When we made this agreement, we had to ask ourselves how can we be sure that we can achieve this,” he said. “The best way…to move forward with this is to look at the trends because India’s economy is growing.”
“We can expect from the trends and integration between our economies that we will be able to achieve this goal,” he said, while pointing to challenges such as technical standards, procedures and permissions. India’s establishment of a separate EFTA office under the Invest in India program will help address such problems and there is “great unity of purpose” for greater trade and scientific cooperation.
Modi’s visit to Norway was originally scheduled for May 2025 but was canceled in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack, and Storr said the international community must take a firm stand against any kind of terrorism. He referred to the terrorist attacks that took place in Oslo 15 years ago and targeted government buildings, and said: “The countries that suffer from this know all the pain that accompanies it. We express our solidarity with the countries and peoples.” [that] Experience terrorism, we must stand together against it, to fight it in its darkest forms, but also to prevent it.
