Politics

It was the must-have game last year, and it seems that Norway’s Prime Minister is still enjoying playing Pokémon GO in 2018.

Erna Solberg, who has been Prime Minister of Norway since 2013, was caught playing the popular game just before a meeting with Donald Trump at the White House.

Prior to the meeting, Ms Solberg held a conference with the Norwegian press, after which she decided to play some Pokémon Go.

Unfortunately for her, a sneaky photographer caught her in the act, minutes before her meeting with Trump.

When asked if it was a way for her to de-stress, bizarrely Ms Solberg claimed she was chatting with her family on the game.

She said: “No, there’s a way to send a message with Pokémon to the family at home.”

This isn’t the first time that Ms Solberg has admitted to playing Pokémon Go in public.

In 2016, during an interview with Aftenposten , Ms Solberg said that she had reached level 14 of the game, and regularly ventured around Arendal in search of Pokestops.

(mirror)

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Rogaland County on the ticket of the Christian Democratic Party (Kristelig Folkeparti), Olaug Bollestad V, has advocated the need to achieve gender parity in the Norwegian Parliament.

That, to her, would help to strengthen women participation in the decision-making process both at the national and global levels.

Currently, the percentage of women MPs in the Norwegian Parliament is 40 as against 60 of their male counterparts.

More so, currently, the three most influential positions in the Norwegian government are all being occupied by women: Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Finance Minister and the Office of the Foreign Affairs Minister.

Speaking in an interview after a seminar with Communication Post-Graduate Students in Kristiansand City last Monday, she underscored the need to push for more women to be parliamentarians either to be at par with men or be even more than them.

Asked if she was riding on the mettle of feminism to score points on gender parity, she replied in the affirmative, explaining that women were not to compete with men but were to be equal in the participation of governance at the highest level.

Drive factor

She stated that she was pushed by the drive to serve people at all levels, especially those at the grassroot to help improve their living conditions.

She discarded the “family first” syndrome, saying that: “In Norway, there is nothing like family first and that no politician including me, would be in politics for money or seek favours for families and cronies.

There is no better ambition than to serve your people and press the button for the less privileged.”

Sexual harassment

On sexual harassment, she said, though every potential woman was likely to face sexual harassment in society, it behoved the female politician to manage her movements.

She admitted that women were most of the time weak in nature but urged those who were in politics to push forward, adding that while those yet to enter politics were warmly welcome.

She called on women politicians around the globe not to relent in their efforts to achieve gender parity in any area of development which they found themselves.

Olaug Bollestad, a nurse by profession, was Mayor of Gjesdal from 2007 to 2013 and had since October 2013 been MP for Rogaland County for the Kristelig Folkeparti.

She will continue to be the MP until 2021 (after she successfully maintained her seat in the September 2017 Parliamentary elections for a second term).

Three women – Solberg, Eriksen Soereide and Finance Minister Siv Jensen – now hold top jobs within the Norwegian government. (Photo: AFP)

Norway’s prime minister has presented three new government ministers in a minor reshuffle of her two-party coalition following a general election last month.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Friday that Ine Eriksen Soereide has been reassigned from defense minister to foreign minister. The move makes the 41-year-old Eriksen Soereide the first woman to be Norway’s top diplomat.

Three women – Solberg, Eriksen Soereide and Finance Minister Siv Jensen – now hold top jobs within the Norwegian government.

Eriksen Soereide takes over the Foreign Ministry from Borge Brende, who stepped down to lead the World Economic Forum.

Frank Bakke-Jensen, who has been European Affairs minister, is taking over the defense portfolio. Marit Berger Rosland was named to replace him at European Affairs. Norway is not a member of the EU.

(Photo: EUobserver)

Norway’s conservative prime minister, Erna Solberg, will be able to govern for four more years following Monday’s (11 September) elections if she continues to work with the right-wing, anti-migrant Progress Party.

There are many examples of junior parties in governing coalitions being punished by voters, but not so in Norway.

Photo – NRK

Exit polls suggest Norway’s center-right coalition government is ahead, although the election appears too close to call.

The poll for the public broadcaster NRK projects the center-right coalition could finish the night with 88 seats, leaving the center-left opposition with 81. The balance will be tilted by two center parties that expect to get 4% each and emerge as king makers.

If poll projections are confirmed, this will be the first time a right-wing administration gains re-election.

Today, Norwegians will go to the polls for their country’s parliamentary elections. While the next prime minister will undoubtedly hail from either the centre-left Labour Party or the incumbent centre-right Conservative Party, the governing coalition will be decided by minor parties’ allegiances. 

In particular, the populist Centre Party (SP), which is polling at highs of around  10%,  could play kingmaker for either coalition. The outsider party opposes left and right wing politics, campaigning on the rejection of governmental centralisation and free trade. Highly Eurosceptic and Islamophobic, it opposes the open practice of Islam and Norway’s participation in both the European Economic Area and the Schengen Area.

Labour’s concerns about capitalism and free trade’s effects on the working class make it the more likely partner for the agrarian SP. Expect the SP to join with Labour to pursue issues that appeal to their pastoral constituents, such as preventing rural hospital closures and the consolidation of small municipalities.

Still, the outcome is too close to call; most polls suggest a victory for either coalition by one or two seats out of the parliament’s 169, making this the closest race in recent history.

What’s the story?

Norway goes to the polls on 11 September to decide whether the outgoing Conservative prime minister, Erna Solberg, or her Labour rival, Jonas Gahr Støre, will lead the country for the next four years.

The contest looks too close to call, with Solberg’s rightwing bloc of parties and Støre’s leftwing opposition grouping neck-and-neck. The scores of a half-dozen smaller parties that could end up as kingmakers will be critical.

How does the system work?

The country of 5.2 million people uses a modified proportional representation system in which 150 MPs in the 169-seat storting, or parliament, are directly elected by constituencies.

The remaining 19 so-called “levelling” seats – one for each of Norway’s counties – are distributed proportionately to parties that clear a 4% vote threshold so their final seat tally fairly reflects their share of the national vote.

What happened last time?

The economically liberal, centre-right Conservatives with their 48 MPs have governed since the 2013 election in a minority coalition with the populist, anti-immigrant Progress party (29), backed in parliament on a confidence and supply basis by the socially conservative Christian Democrats (10)and centrist Liberals (nine).

In opposition are the social democrats of Labour (55), which finished as largest party four years ago but was unable to form a ruling coalition, the agrarian Centre party (10), the Socialist Left (seven) and the Greens (one), who made their debut in the storting.

Where are we now?

On the right, promising stability plus further tax cuts and helped by an economy recovering nicely from the 2014 oil price collapse that hit Norway hard, Solberg’s Conservatives are polling at between 24 and 25%.

Their Progress party partners are on 15 to 16%, their core support reinforced by the 2015 migrant crisis and the withdrawals the government made from Norway’s near trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund during the economic downturn. The Christian Democrats are on five to 6% and the Liberals on four to 5%.

On the left, economic growth and falling unemployment have undermined Labour’s key call for greater equality and seen its support fall 37% in January to between 26 and 27% now. Its potential allies are faring better. The Centre party is on nine to 11%, the Socialist Left on 6% and the fast-growing Greens on four to 5%.

The stage is set for a nail-biter, and negotiations to form a government with reliable support in parliament could prove equally fraught.

Norwegian Labor Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre reached out to voters with a brutally honest pledge — he’s going to raise their taxes if elected prime minister next week.

A year ago, Norway’s general election on September 11 looked like a certain victory for Støre’s Labor-led center-left bloc over Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s center-right coalition government. Now they are neck-and-neck in the polls.

Solberg’s Conservative Party has attacked Labor’s platform by suggesting the party will raise taxes by more than it says if it gets into power, or will be forced to do so by its leftist allies in a governing coalition. But the Norwegian left says there is no option but to raise taxes because of the way the Conservatives have been spending money and giving tax breaks to the rich.

“Do you know how much money they have spent? It’s a piñata,” said Bjørn Jacobsen, who is running for parliament for the Socialist Left Party (SV) in the county of Møre og Romsdal. His party is a likely junior coalition partner if Labor gets into power.

Jacobsen shares the widespread feeling in Norway that it will be a very close contest on Monday, though he expects the outcome to be a coalition of Labor, the rural Center Party and the Socialist Left.

Bernt Aardal, a political scientist at the University of Oslo, predicts it will be “very close, both in terms of the election result and what is going to happen with the government afterwards.” The uncertainty stems partly from weak support for many smaller parties, some of which could fail to reach the 4 percent election threshold, and from shifts in strength between parties in opposing blocs.

Though it’s a safe bet that either Støre or Solberg will be prime minster, the daily Aftenposten recently listed 10 different possible government coalition constellations. A weak result for Labor could force Støre to rely heavily on the small Green and/or Red parties for support, which could make governing difficult and hand the tiny parties considerable power.

Welfare costs money

Egalitarian Norway already has steeply progressive income-tax rates, with a top marginal rate of 46.7 percent, and a total tax burden of around 45 percent, which is above the OECD average.

“Tax is not so important as what we shall do with it — we want to have as low taxes as possible, but as high as necessary,” Støre said in an interview on national broadcaster NRK, reconfirming his pledge to raise the total tax take by up to 15 billion Norwegian kroner ($1.93 billion).

He said Norway needs that money to invest in teachers, to deal with an aging population and to boost job training.

“We kept our tax promise in 2005, 2009, 2013, and we will keep it in 2017,” Støre said.

Though voters are showing signs of fatigue with Solberg’s minority coalition of her Conservatives and the populist Progress Party, the disillusionment does not seem as rampant as when voters in 2013 ousted the previous Labor-led coalition, which had governed for eight years under Støre’s predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg’s approach, when he won power in 2005 for a second time, had been to tell the people not to expect tax cuts; Støre has gone one better and chosen to campaign on a promise to raise taxes.

For the social democratic Labor Party, which is the biggest party with 55 seats in the 169-seat parliament, that means rolling back tax cuts granted by the Solberg government to high earners and the rich. But in a country where income differences are smaller than in many others, the planned tax increases would not affect only the super-rich, but also people earning a high, though not extravagant, annual income of more than 600,000 Norwegian kroner ($77,120).

So, it’s a “soak the rich” strategy that would affect Norwegians who likely think of themselves as unmistakably middle-class — and unwilling to hand over more to the taxman.

The tabloid VG in July launched on its website a “Jonas Tax calculator” (named after Støre), where readers can plug in their financial details to find out if or by how much Støre’s tax-hike pledge will affect them.

Truls Wickholm, a Labor lawmaker from Oslo who sits on the parliament’s finance and economic committee, said the party felt “the need to be upfront with voters about what welfare is actually going to cost.”

(politico)

Norwegian airport operator Avinor has officially opened the new Nkr 3.7bn (US$468m) terminal at Bergen Airport, in Flesland, Norway. Opened on time and within budget, the terminal has the capacity to accommodate up to 10 million passengers annually.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Erna Solberg, Norway’s Prime Minister, said, “Flesland plays a vital role in tourism and industry in the region. Now that the airport has doubled its capacity, we have a large international airport that Western Norway can be proud of. This is a state-run flagship project that has run on schedule and within budget and Avinor can be proud of the work that went into this expansion.”

Covering nearly 680,000ft², travelers can now enjoy a more spacious airport with an increased number of restaurants and shops. The design of the airport and technical solutions offers big energy savings in addition to environmental benefits.

“We’re now providing even better facilities for travelers and airlines,” said Aslak Sverdrup, airport director, Avinor. “Hopefully this will mean more direct flights to big, important domestic and foreign destinations.”

Dag Falk-Petersen, CEO of Avinor, said, “This is a very important day for Norwegian aviation and we are very proud of the new Flesland airport. Bergen now has a fantastic airport that will take us into the future. Thousands of people have been working day and night since the decision to expand was made in 2014.”

(N.Sethu)

The world’s three most populated countries, China, India and the United States, have a more positive view about the EU than close neighbours like Russia, Norway and Switzerland, a Eurobarometer survey found.

The EU published on Wednesday (2 August) a new survey that for the first time included the views of people in eleven non-EU countries about the EU.

In China, the US and India, which together represent 49% of the world population and 61% of global GDP, a majority of people have a positive opinion about the EU.

Particularly, 94% in Brazil, 84% in China, 83% in India, 76% in Japan, 79% in Canada, 75% in the USA, 67% in Australia and 54% in Turkey.

On the contrary, it seems that “close neighbours” do not share such a view.

Russia, Norway and Switzerland tend to have “mixed feelings”, Eurobarometer noted, underlining that between 43% and 46% have a positive view of the EU.

Another important element was the question about how people perceive the EU as “a place of stability in a troubled world”.

Eurobarometer also noted that the EU was globally perceived as such; however, there were significant differences “from 82% in India thinking that way to 49% in Turkey – but this is not the case in Russia where only 33% share this view and 61% the opposite”.

Europeans more optimistic

In the meantime, the survey found that EU citizens are increasingly optimistic about the continent’s future (56%), a 6% increase compared to autumn 2016.

In addition, trust is also following a rising trend (42%) up from 36% in autumn 2016 and 32% in autumn 2015.

The highest increase was marked in France (41%+15 points) followed by Denmark (56%+15 points).

Interestingly, for the first time terrorism became the top concern of EU citizens who believe (44%+12% since autumn 2016) that it’s the main challenge of the EU, according to the survey.

In May, the Commission proposed the 2018 EU budget with security taking a center stage.

It’s followed by immigration (38%) while the economic situation (18%), the state of member states’ public finances (17%) and unemployment (15%) are almost unchanged.

(euractiv)

Five countries have extended sanctions against the Crimea until June 23, 2018. Norway, Albania, Montenegro, Georgia and Ukraine made the decision subsequent to that of the EU.

This is noted in a statement by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini.

“They [the five countries] will ensure that their national policies are consistent with this decision of the Council [of Europe on the adoption of the signatures.] The European Union takes note of their commitments and welcomes it,” the report said.

Montenegro and Albania are candidates for joining the European Union. Norway is a member of the European Free Trade Association.

Sanctions against Crimea provide for a ban on the supply of Crimean goods to the EU, as well as any European investment in the peninsula, including the purchase of real estate, business financing and the provision of any services. European courts cannot enter Crimean ports except in emergency situations.

The European Union extended sanctions against Russia earlier in June. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko said that he welcomed such a decision.

The EU introduced sanctions against Russia in 2014, after the occupation of the Crimea. Later, the EU imposed sanctions against Russia for its involvement in the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Restrictive measures were several times expanded and extended.

A 92-year-old man has been awarded a Norwegian Medal of Honour for the role he played in liberating the country 72 years ago.

Kenneth Foster, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, served as a telegrapher on HMS Viceroy during World War Two.

It was responsible for sinking two U-boats and played a key role in freeing Norwegian towns from the Germans.

Mr Foster said the honour was “out of the blue” and “after all these years, you don’t expect it”.

The Honorary Consul Nigel Fletcher presented the medal on behalf of the Norwegian embassy at a ceremony at Trowbridge Town Hall.

Mr Foster, who is a member of the White Ensign Association, said: “It’s a big day for me. The whole thing was out of the blue and, after all these years, you don’t expect it.

“To start with I was fearful of the sea because I wasn’t a very good sailor.

“You had to get used to it — a ship which, we used to say, would roll on wet grass it was so unstable.

“But there was no point in being frightened of anything else because this was what you’d volunteered for.”

His role was to transport Norwegians, who had been exiled in the UK for over four years, back to Stavanger as the war was ending.

“I think I was the youngest on board and here we are, I’m approaching 92 so there’s not much chance of the others being with us.

“I know that all the others I kept in contact with have gone, sadly, but when I receive that medal I’ll be thinking that this is on behalf of them as well.”

(BBC)

Oslo Forum 2017 opened Tuesday with participation of officials from numerous countries and international organisations, including Iran’s Foreign Minister, the US former Secretary of State, Indonesia and Norway Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Mohammad Javad Zarif who arrived in Norway’s capital, Oslo, on Monday took part in Oslo Forum 2017 June 13-14.

Officials and figures from more than 100 countries are taking part in the Forum to discuss the world conflicts and the ways to realize the global peace.

Some participants, including Zarif, the US former Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, are expected to give lectures in the different panels of the Forum after the opening session.

Iran’s Foreign Minister would also hold talks with some officials present at the Forum. He has already met with his Norwegian and Indonesian counterparts.

Oslo Forum, as an international conference hosted by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and supported by the Swiss Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, has become an annual opportunity since 2003 to elaborate on global conflicts, particularly in Africa and Asia, and trying to find solutions for them.

The senior mediators, players and decision makers gather together in the Forum to create a place for unofficial talks for facing the challenges ahead and finding proper solutions according to the Chatham House model.

The main goals of the international gathering include developing mediation-based solutions to conflicts, creating a community of mediators and an increase in awareness and learning on issues, challenges and solutions.

The conference has a vast range of participants, from representatives of international organisations to governmental players (Foreign Ministers) and non-governmental individuals with various views, think tanks, academics, journalists, peace activists, political parties, religious leaders, political and military movements, as well as local and international non-governmental organisations.

Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Norway want to be part of the EU’s transitional deal with the UK after the latter leaves the bloc in April 2019.

“We need to find solutions for our states so we don’t fly off a cliff,” Lichtenstein’s foreign minister Aurelia Frick said on Tuesday (16 May), ahead of a meeting with the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and Maltese deputy prime minister Louis Grech, whose country holds the EU presidency.

Norwegian Minister of EEA and EU Affairs Frank Bakke-Jensen is to visit Estonia on Monday and Tuesday to sign an EEA and Norway grants agreement with Estonia for a new period.

“Estonia is an important partner for Norway both in terms of bilateral relations, regional policy and European policy. Estonia’s priorities for its EU presidency, especially those in the field of digital cooperation, are well in accordance with Norway’s priority areas in Nordic cooperation, the presidency of which Norway will hold this year. We can use these synergies to our mutual benefit,” Bakke-Jensen said in remarks released ahead of the trip.

During the visit, Bakke-Jensen is scheduled to meet with Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser, Deputy Minister for EU Affairs Matti Maasikas, and Minister of Health and Labor Jevgeni Ossinovski. The Norwegian minister will sign a memorandum of mutual understanding for the new period of EEA and Norway grants and is scheduled to meet with representatives of projects which have already received the funding. Bakke-Jensen will also visit the e-Estonia showroom, textile company Protex and representatives of Estonian non-governmental organizations.

“Cooperation with Estonia in the framework of EEA and Norway grants is a good example of how these support schemes contribute to the development of an environmentally friendly, inclusive and competitive Europe,” Bakke-Jensen said.

(baltictimes)

POPE Francis said on Saturday a third country, such as Norway, should try to mediate the dispute between North Korea and Washington, to cool a situation that had become “too hot” and posed the risk of nuclear devastation.

Francis said he believed “a good part of humanity” would be destroyed in any widespread war.

Speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him back from Cairo, Francis also said he was ready to meet US President Donald Trump when he is in Europe next month but that he was not aware that Washington had made a request for a meeting.

In answer to a question about the tensions between the United States and North Korea, Francis said the United Nations should re-assert its leadership in world diplomacy because it had become “too watered down”.

“I call on, and will call on, all leaders, as I have called on leaders of various places, to work to seek a solution to problems through the path of diplomacy,” he said about the North Korea crisis.

Representatives for the White House did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Francis spoke after North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile shortly after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned that failure to curb Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes could lead to “catastrophic consequences”.

“There are so many facilitators in the world, there are mediators who offer themselves, such as Norway for example,” he said in his customary freewheeling news conference with reporters at the end of each trip.

“It (Norway) is always ready to help. That is just one but there are many. But the path is the path of negotiations, of a diplomatic solution,” he said in the discussion, which lasted about 30 minutes.

Norway secretly negotiated an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians known as the Oslo Accords in the early 1990s.

The pope expressed his deep concern over the crisis, saying: “This question of missiles in (North) Korea has been brewing for more than a year but now it seems the situation has become has become too hot.”

He said: “We are talking about the future of humanity. Today, a widespread war would destroy — I would not say half of humanity — but a good part of humanity, and of culture, everything, everything.

“It would be terrible. I don’t think that humanity today would be able to withstand it.”

Trump is due in Sicily on May 26-27 for a meeting of the heads of the world’s richest nations. The White House has not yet said if he would be stopping in Rome to meet the pope, which would be an unusual omission for a visiting head of state.

Asked if he would be meeting Trump, the pope said he had not yet been informed if a request had been made, but added: “I receive every head of state who asks for an audience”.

(Reuters, asiancorrespondent)

Norway’s ambassador to Turkey has been summoned to Turkey’s Foreign Ministry after Norway granted refugee status to five former Turkish military officers allegedly linked to the Fetullah Terror Organization (FETO), a ministry spokesperson said Wednesday, Media reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

“It is saddening and unacceptable to see an allied country supporting the efforts of individuals who were recalled from their state duty and who abused the political, social, and economic resources of their country of residence instead of returning to Turkey,” according to statement by foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu.

The asylum-seekers include a former military attache and four military officers who worked at a NATO education center in Norway.

FETO, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, is accused of orchestrating a defeated coup last July that left 249 people martyred, and around 2,200 others wounded.

Turkey’s government accuses the FETO terror network of staging the coup attempt as well as being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Since the foiled coup, operations have been ongoing in the military, police and judiciary, as well as in other state institutions across the country, to arrest suspects with alleged links to FETO.

(N.Sethu)

Viking ship in full sail, Labrador Sea

A Viking woman buried in Denmark more than a millennia ago was born in Norway, an archaeologist has discovered. Her case highlights once more that the Vikings were mobile people, accustomed to migrating to other lands.

The woman’s remains were placed in a Viking grave in Randers, in Denmark’s Jutland peninsula. It was first excavated fourteen years ago by Ernst Stidsing, the curator at East Jutland Museum.

A number of wealthy and elaborate grave goods such as a broach, a knife and a necklace with bronze and glass pearl were recovered.

All these objects suggest that it was a wealthy woman of high status which was laid to rest there. However, no human remains – except for a few fragments of teeth – were preserved.

At the time of the excavation, Stidsing had found one object that he had never seen before – a brooch made from a decorative plaque which had been taken from a holy shrine.

“I had not seen anything like this before from the time of the Danish Viking Age, but I later found that this type of jewellery was not so uncommon in Norway and that it could also have been plundered from sites in Northumbria, Ireland or Southern Scotland. But at the time, we were not able to verify this by analysing the origins of this woman,” Stidsing told IBTimes UK.

Now, the archaeologist has been able to dig deeper in the woman’s past, examining what remains of her teeth with a strontium isotope analysis. Strontium isotope composition of tooth enamel can provide valuable information about where an individual is born and where spent their childhood.

The method works because strontium isotopes provide a fingerprint for different rock types and thus, indicate geographical locations where people might have spent time.

Here, the archaeologists have found clear indications that the woman was born in Norway and grew up there. It is not clear what led her to Denmark, although such movements wouldn’t have been uncommon for her and her contemporaries.

“We don’t know how she ended up in Denmark. Maybe her presence there is connected to an arranged marriage with a Viking from the region but we can’t know for sure. We don’t even know her age, since only parts of her teeth remain for us to analyse. So mysteries remain, but she is a proof that migration was taking place between countries in the Viking Age,” Stidsing concluded.

(ibtimes)

Left to right: James Mattis (US Secretary of Defense) and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende on Thursday reacted to Pristina’s plans to turn the Kosovo Security Force into an army.

“I urge Kosovo authorities to refrain from transformation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into an armed force without a constitutional change and an inclusive political process,” Brende said in a statement.

“Norway will remain a partner in Kosovo´s efforts for reforms and Euro-Atlantic integration. Regional stability and cooperation is a prerequisite for deeper integration. Normalization of the relations with Serbia will have our full support,” he added.

Previously, NATO and the US stated their opposition to the plans, something acknowledged by Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who launched the initiative earlier in the week.

Belgrade strongly opposes the possibility of Pristina creating an army, and has interpreted the lack of support for the idea from the West as its diplomatic victory.

(b92)

Norwegian Finance Minister Siv Jensen in a meeting with Iranian Ambassador to Oslo Mohammad Hassan Habibollahzadeh underlined the need for the removal of banking obstacles hindering the broadening of trade ties between the two countries.

“My ministry is ready to help remove the banking hurdles,” Jensen said during the meeting in the Norwegian capital on Tuesday.

The Iranian ambassador, for his part, underlined the need for signing basic documents between the two countries.

The two sides discussed ways to strengthen economic cooperation between the two countries.

In early October, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende announced that Oslo has opened a one-billion-dollar credit line to help the Norwegian companies with export of their commodities to Iran.

“About $400 million dollars of that credit line ($1 billion has been used to export the modern technologies to Iran,” Brende said in a meeting with Iranian Economy Minister Ali Tayyebnia in Washington.

In March, Norwegian Ambassador in Tehran Odyssey Norheim underlined that Norway and Iran are keen to boost the level of their bilateral relations.

“The Norway-Iran relations are booming after the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the removal of sanctions,” Norheim said in a meeting with Kerman Governor-General Alireza Razmhosseini.

She pointed to a recent visit by the Norwegian foreign minister to Tehran, and said, “Norway’s foreign minister traveled to Iran after 12 years and this will result in enhancing our mutual cooperation.”

Norheim said she met the CEOs of the Norwegian companies in Iran and the heads of Iranian firms in Oslo to find out more about the existing capacities for cooperation in oil, gas, marine industries and alternative energies.

(farsnews)

Denmark and Norway announced they have removed travel warnings to Egypt’s South Sinai cities of Sharm El-Shiekh, Dahab and Saint Catherine, state news agency MENA reported on Friday.

A statement by the Danish Embassy in Cairo said it had decided, along with other North European countries, to remove its travel warnings to South Sinai, effective from Thursday 9 February.

“Denmark is no longer warning its nationals of travelling to major touristic destinations in Egypt including Cairo, Alexandria, the Red Sea, Luxor, Aswan and South Sinai,” a Danish embassy statement said according to the agency.

The number of the Danish tourists that visited Egypt reached 100,000 in 2009, according to the latest statistics by Egypt’s State Information Service.

More than 40,000 Norwegian tourists visit Egypt annually, according to the figures.

A number of European airlines and governments introduced restrictions on flights to Sharm El-Sheikh over security concerns after a Russian passenger jet crashed in Sinai in 2015, killing 224 people, most of whom were holidaymakers.

Russia suspended passenger flights to Egypt shortly after the crash. Negotiations to resume flights have been taking place since the original suspension decision.

Last Month, the German transportation ministry removed a restriction on German airlines—imposed in the wake of a Russian plane crash, which required them to fly at a minimum altitude of 26,000 feet above South Sinai.

Norway’s former Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik was detained for questioning at Dulles Airport in Washington, Friday.

Authorities held Bondevik, who served as prime minister from 1997-2000 and 2001-2005, for an hour on Tuesday because his passport showed he had traveled to Iran in 2014.

“There should be no reason to fear a former prime minister who has been on official visits to the country several times before,” he told Norway’s TV2.

Bondevik said it was obvious he was not a threat to the U.S.

“It should be enough when they found that I have a diplomatic passport, [that I’m a] former prime minister,” Bondevik said. “That should be enough for them to understand that I don’t represent any problem or threat to this country and [to] let me go immediately, but they didn’t.”

Bondevik told to media, he was placed in a room with travelers from the Middle East and Africa, made to wait 40 minutes and then was questioned for 20 minutes about his trip to Iran, where he had spoken at a human rights conference.

Authorities told Bondevik the added scrutiny had nothing to do with President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, which applies to those from seven majority-Muslim countries, but was related to a 2015 law signed by former President Barack Obama in the wake of terrorist attacks in California and Paris.

The law places extra restrictions on citizens from 38 countries that are part of the U.S.’s visa waiver program, including Norway, if they travel to Iran, or the six other countries that now fall under Trump’s ban. Exceptions are typically made for people who go there on behalf of international organizations.

Bondevik, who is head of a human rights organization called the Oslo Center, said he was “surprised and provoked” by the scrutiny and suggested further incidents of that kind would be blow to America’s reputation.

Bondevik, who flew into Dulles Airport from Europe on Tuesday afternoon, was not immediately allowed to leave after customs agents saw in his passport that he had been to Iran.

Bondevik, also the president of a human rights organization called The Oslo Center, went to Iran in 2014 to speak at a human rights conference there.

It places extra restrictions on some citizens from 38 countries — including Norway — that are part of the US’s Visa Waiver Program. Citizens of those countries normally do not need a visa to visit the US for up to 90 days, but because of the law they now do need a visa if they have been to Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, Somalia or Yemen since March 2011.

Those are the same seven countries Trump included in his temporary travel ban.

Bondevik said that his office contacted the US Embassy in Oslo prior to his trip this week and was told his passport and a separate electronic travel authorization (called ESTA) would be sufficient to enter the United States.

“I was surprised, and I was provoked.

What will the reputation of the US be if this happens not only to me, but also to other international leaders?” he said about being set aside for questioning.

A spokesperson with US Customs and Border Protection said CBP is prohibited by privacy laws from discussing specifics of any.

Bondevik came to the US to attend Thursday morning’s National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton.

“It seems that if the name of this country or other countries appears, you stick out,” Bondevik said, referring to Iran.
The former Christian Democrat leader returned to Norway on Friday.

(N.Sethurupan)

A spat over the re-appointment of a judge to a European court has given rise to accusations of politicians meddling with the judiciary. The country in question? Norway.

The controversy stems from Oslo’s decision to shorten the mandate of a Norwegian judge sitting on the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) court.

Senior judges and academics in Norway have accused the government of undermining the court, saying it sets a bad example to authoritarian regimes across Europe. Critics suspect the move is intended as a way of replacing the judge with someone more explicitly pro-Norwegian, after local press reports that the government is upset after a string of court losses.

The Norwegian judge in question is Per Christiansen, whose six-year term was due to end in January. After failing to find a replacement, the Norwegian government reappointed him last month — but only for three years, rather than the usual six.

Norway’s government — a mix of conservatives and populists — says Christiansen should retire when he turns 70, as is required of all judges working in Norway. Critics point out that EFTA’s own rules do not include an age-limit.

The Norwegian Judges Association said the government’s decision was “very unfortunate,” risked undermining the court’s legitimacy and could feed “speculation about whether there might in fact be other reasons for reducing the term of office.”

“We find ourselves in a situation where the governments of several countries, including in Europe, are endeavoring to undermine the independence of the courts by changing their composition through various formal means,” wrote Ingjerd Thune, a district court judge who heads the association, and Henrik Bull, a supreme court judge. “We fear, however, that what has happened in connection with the reappointment of Judge Christiansen could undermine Norway’s credibility” when trying to counter such meddling.

Ane Haavardsdatter Lunde, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said it would respond to the judges who have voiced concerns but declined to comment further.

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway are members of the EFTA Court, each with one permanent judge on the court which oversees the countries’ access to the EU single market and rules on their application of EU laws.

Press reports describe the Norwegian government as increasingly critical of the three-judge EFTA Court following a string of losses. There is a perception that the court is stricter than the European Court of Justice, to the detriment of Norway.

In recent years the court has ruled that Norway breached European law by restricting the ability of foreign construction companies to operate or failing to clean up air pollution. Another recent judgment held Norway should have done more to clamp down on money laundering and terrorism financing.

A question of independence

The Surveillance Authority — which, like the European Commission, is responsible for enforcing EFTA rules — is investigating the appointment.

“Any question mark raised concerning the independence of an EEA Institution is a very serious matter, and that makes it all the more important that we give the states a chance to make their point of view known before drawing our own conclusions,” said Carsten Zatschler, legal and executive director at the EFTA Surveillance Authority.

The probe follows a complaint by Norwegian academics, including Mads Andenæs, a United Nations special rapporteur, who also reportedly applied for the position. They give several examples of Norwegian judges who have worked at international courts beyond the age of 70.

“Current European affairs and recent Norwegian history should make the authorities particularly sensitive not to appear to manipulate retirement ages for judges,” according to the academics.

The move was reminiscent of 1940 when “Norwegian supreme court judges resigned when lower retirement limits opened [the way to pack] the court with collaborators.”

The issue has also landed on the desk of the EFTA Court. In a separate procedure, a Lichtenstein court has asked the court to clarify whether the abnormal mandate could result in its rulings being declared invalid.

(politico)