Keir Starmer was on a secret mission when he flew off to Norway for the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meeting with heads of government of European Nato allies.
Yes, he was there to press the case for the “coalition of the willing” to protect Ukraine in a post peace settlement reality before heading to Kyiv.
But he had other important business linked to his government’s economic growth and defence cooperation agendas – selling frigates.
The Norwegian government is about to make a decision on buying new frigates for their navy, but who to buy from? The choice (as often seems to be the case) is Britain or France.
It certainly helped that when Sir Keir had his bilateral meeting about a Norwegian ship with Norway’s PM, Jonas Gahr Støre warmly described him as “our best friend.”
As the sun shone down on the two men standing on the ship’s deck in the idyllic setting of Oslo’s harbour, it seemed like a match made in heaven.
Sir Keir battled with his inner robot to give an equally effusive response: “The relationship between our two countries has been historically close, particularly on defence and is in the strongest position it has been probably ever.”
Code for: “Buy our frigates please, we are your best friends.”
But after a week where he did what none of his predecessors had achieved and unveiled trade deals with both India and the US in three days, this was a prime minister who was brimming with confidence over his ability to pull off a deal.
For all the bad results in the local elections last week, the rise of Farage, the complaining about welfare and winter fuel cuts from his backbenchers, the lack of economic growth and the bile on social media, Sir Keir looks remarkably relaxed, comfortable and confident in his own skin.
It is noticeable that while he has not been in Downing Street for a year yet, other international leaders gravitate towards him at events, respect his competence and advice.
That was with the possible exception of Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen who gave Starmer a disgruntled look at the JEF summit – probably because she is still fighting Trump over Greenland and the British prime minister is instead signing trade deals with him.
It may help the UK’s case for selling frigates to Norway that HMS St Albans the youngest of the type 23 frigates was sitting in Oslo harbour where it has helped patrol the northern passes tracking Russian submarines.
Commissioned in 2001 it has recently had a £100 million upgrade and is likely to be in service for at least another decade maybe more. However, the UK also has the new type 26 and type 31 frigates coming through which have also been bought by Australia and Canada.
