In Northern Europe you always know when it’s a “bank holiday” (= a public holiday) because it invariably rains. And this one is no exception! It’s the first of May….May Day, Labour Day, Early May bank holiday…..depending on which Northern European country you’re in. Makes little difference - it’s raining just about everywhere!


And rain it did today, May 1st, in Oslo on the first day of the first Pacific Council’s first political junket since before the pandemic. No one was working of course, so today is our “culture day”.


We float around the various highlights of Oslo, even in the rain an attractive and beautifully maintained city. The city has a calm and tranquil atmosphere even on the subsequent busy workdays, undoubtedly helped by the fact that most newer cars in Oslo are electric.


Of all the highlights, THE highlight is the remarkable and unique Vigeland Sculpture Park. The Park open every day and free to enter, displays over 200 stunning granite and bronze sculptures bequeathed by Gustav Vigeland to the Norwegian state before his death in 1935, “whose realistic work represents the cycle of human life and all its emotions”. The sculptures were installed mainly in the period 1940-1949, but are a result of over 40 years of work


But of course the main purpose of our visit this time is “political”. A brief outline of our itinerary and the principals we meet are shown below in a footnote. Norway is (per capita) the richest country in the world, 5 million people and a sovereign wealth fund of a staggering $1.4 trillion based on its share of North Sea oil and gas first discovered in 1969 which transformed the country from a relatively poor corner of Europe mostly dependent on fishing. And unlike another nation with access to North Sea oil and gas Norway has invested and saved its windfall for the inevitable “rainy day” rather than squandering it on goodness knows what! 


Norway, while not an EU member was a founding member of NATO, has a land border with Russia and so as we hear in several meetings is a critical, frontline member of the Western Alliance. Norway is a major contributor of both humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine with a financial commitment supported by all political parties that is designed to last past the life of the current parliament and so will continue regardless of who’s running the government after the next election. 


Norway has a strong commitment to humanitarian aid, both the government and the very impressive Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the five largest non-governmental organizations of its type in the world. As we hear from its director, even though Norway is part of the Western Alliance, governments or warring factions in many of the world’s trouble spots think of Norway as “non-aligned” (he tells us that many people he meets in some of the worst places - Afghanistan, the Sahel, Syria - have not even heard of Norway and those who have think its capital is Stockholm!) which enables the NRC to work on both sides of a conflict. And so of course fittingly, Oslo is home to the Nobel Peace Prize - the only Nobel prize decided and awarded outside Sweden. 

Norway has taken in many refugees from the world’s conflict zones, particularly the Middle East and now Ukraine although we hear that Ukraine aside, the country’s refugee policy has become a lot less liberal recently. Most impressive though is our meeting with Masud Gharahkhani, the President (Speaker) of the Storting, the Norwegian Parliament. Mr Gharahkhani, an MP since 2017 and parliamentary president since 2021 was born in Tehran and brought to Norway as a refugee when he was a child. Noteworthy also that 40% of the Storting’s members are women. Both a testament to both racial and gender diversity of which Norway is rightly proud! 


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**Itinerary Highlights


US Embassy & Ambassador’s Residence

  • Ambassador Marc Nathanson (absent from meetings because as a recent past president and still board member of the Pacific Council he was under a 12 month conflict of interest “embargo”)
  • Sharon Hudson-Dean - Deputy Chief of Mission
  • General Eirik Kristofferson - Chief of Defense Norwegian Armed Forces

Nobel Institute & Nobel Peace Center

  • Olav Njolstad - Director, Nobel Institute & Secretary Nobel Selection Committee

Norwegian Parliament

  • Masud Gharahkhani - President of the Storting

Norwegian Refugee Council

  • Jan Egeland - Secretary General

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  • Minister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim - Minister of International Development
  • Unni Klovstad - Deputy minister and recent Norwegian Ambassador to Australia