Norway summons U.S. embassy official over spying allegations

CGTN

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File photo of Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg. /AP

The Norwegian government summoned U.S. diplomats on Thursday over

a bombshell report

that America spied on its allies with the help of Denmark.

The defense ministry officials met the American diplomats in Oslo, Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said in a statement shared on Twitter, stressing that "spying on allies is unacceptable and unnecessary."

On Thursday, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said she was "pleased that the Americans have made it clear that they changed their practices in 2014 when it comes to monitoring allies and that they want to cooperate with us and others to map what happened," according to Norwegian news agency NTB.

She said that her government had sent a summons to the U.S. embassy.

Already, France and Germany have responded by denouncing the spying as "unacceptable," and demanding "full clarity" from the U.S. side.

A joint investigation by foreign media agencies revealed that the U.S. National Security Agency used a partnership with Denmark's foreign intelligence unit to spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, Germany and France between 2012 and 2014.

China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday

also said that it is "unacceptable" for the United States to spy on its allies and "even more intolerable" to spy on the world.