Norway removes Pakistan from its national threat assessment list

OSLO: A great success for Pakistan’s diplomacy as Norway has removed Pakistan from its list of National Threat Assessment, a report said on Sunday.

The announcement to this effect was made in the latest report of the Norwegian Police Security Service.

Pakistan and some other countries were being added to this list for the past several years.

Due to Pakistan's inclusion in this list, Pakistani students and researchers were facing a lot of difficulties.

The report identifies and assesses the expected threats related to intelligence sabotage, spread of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and extremism as well as threats to government officials in Norway.

The assessments are to contribute to the design of policy and strengthen political decision – making processes. This report is said to be independent assessments of Norwegian security agency without any reflection on/of Norway’s bilateral relations with the countries perceived to be posing threats.

This report is recommendatory/ warning in nature but are given significant weightage in political and administrative policy-designing and decision-making processes.

Norway’s past National threat assessment reports (PST) for the year 2018, 2021, 2022 & 2023 assessed Pakistan, among other countries, as being involved in illegal procurement activities/ covert attempts for acquiring dual-use technology/ illegal transfer of knowledge from Norway to advance weapons of mass destruction.