Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre contacted US Senator Lindsey Graham to defuse the growing controversy following the country’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund’s decision to sell its Caterpillar shares.
The fund announced it was pulling all its investments in Caterpillar on ethical grounds due to the use of bulldozers supplied by the company to Israel in Gaza and the West Bank. Graham described the decision as “humiliating and short-sighted” and warned Norway: new trade tariffs and visa restrictions on fund managers may be on the agenda.The Norwegian side, on the other hand, emphasized that the decision was not political but was taken by the fund’s ethics council and the Norges Bank board of directors.
52% of the fund’s total assets, or more than $1 trillion, are located in the US.While experts argue that uncertainties in Trump’s policies could create risks for the fund’s assets in the US, fund CEO Nicolai Tangen rejected the possibility of asset seizure, stating, “I don’t find it credible.”
