News 2006

Norway, with the support of the other Nordic countries, has taken the initiative to establish an international commission to strengthen the user and property rights of the poor. The commission has a mandate to complete its work in 2008. The UN Secretary-General has welcomed the initiative as an important contribution to meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals.

Norway protests to the Sudanese Government against expulsion of the Norwegian Refugee Council from Darfur .

Minister for International Development Erik Solheim made this speech at Norwegian Refugee Council’s 60th anniversary November 10. in Oslo.

“Norway will organise an international conference in Oslo to start a process towards an international ban on cluster munitions that have unacceptable humanitarian consequences,” says Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

Norway will contribute NOK 6.5 million to UN continental shelf fund for developing countries.

The Norwegian Government today agreed to cancel USD 20 million (132 million Norwegian Kroner) of a total USD 46 million debt owed by Pakistan to Norway.

The Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have agreed to meet in Switzerland from 28 to 29 October, and have asked Norway to make the necessary arrangements.

International donors meeting in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, have promised  USD 500 million  in aid for the Palestinian territories. Below is the statement State Secretary Raymond Johansen  made at the International Donor Conference on the Palestinian Territory:

The chair of the First Committee, ambassadør Mona Juul, held the following statement in her personal capacity at the opening of the meeting on Monday.

Norway chaired the first meeting of the International Somalia Contact Group, a group established to support the peace and reconciliation efforts in Somalia. The group consists of the European Union, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Tanzania, United Kingdom and the United States. - Our hope is that we will be able to address the way forward for enhanced multilateral engagement with the Somali Transitional Federal Institutions and other actors inside Somalia, said Ambassador Johan Ludvik Løvald at the first meeting of the group. The Contact Group issued the enclosed communiqué.