"A historic increase": Norway allocates more than half a billion dollars for army

The Norwegian government has said it wants to spend an additional 7 billion kroner ($630 million) on the armed forces over the next 12 years amid rising tensions in the region.

Here's What We Know

The announcement comes just a month after the government launched a "historic increase" in military spending, with the Norwegian army receiving 600 billion kroner ($54 billion).

Jonas Gahr Støre, the prime minister, said the overall budget increase means Norway will be able to meet NATO's target of 2% of each member state's GDP for military spending. The Scandinavian country's defence budget is expected to rise to 104 billion kroner ($9.4 billion) in 2024.

Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Wedum called this "a strong increase" and said it was "a necessary investment to strengthen our freedom".

Source: Associated Press News