The Prime Minister's speech at Tromsø City Mayor’s reception at Arctic Frontiers

As delivered (transcribed from the recording)

Dear Arctic friends,

It is an immense pleasure to be back at the Arctic Frontiers – and remind myself and ourselves that this is not an ‘eternal institution’. It is something that has grown out of a joint commitment for committed people around the Arctic to bring order, civilization, and decency to Arctic relations; managing this immense northern part of the globe.

It is not always that politicians can look back and take stock of things that have happened on one's watch. But it is 20 years almost exactly, since Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide and I joined the Government of Jens Stoltenberg at the time, and defined in October 2005 that the Arctic, the High North, would be Norway's strategic priority.

And we did so because we saw that things were changing. The environment was changing, ice was melting, resources and human activity, and there was geopolitical interest emerging. And the Norwegian approach was to say; let us join our closest partners and always strive towards having knowledge and being one step ahead, conceptually.

And I am very pleased to see that during those 20 years, a lot of that have actually happened. We coined the notion “High North, low tension”, wanting to have stability and predictability in the Arctic and for Norway – with its neighbourhood – having, of course, geopolitical predictability. But we engaged in a number of areas when we had the wind with us.

And we gave emphasis on university, on research, on Barents Watch out in the sea – monitoring what was happening for seafarers – and so on. We gave a new dynamic dimension to the Arctic Council. In the beginning, in the 1990s, people had difficulty of what to expect from the Arctic Council. But on our first watch, we got the challenge of welcoming all those partners from outside the Arctic who wanted to join us.

And in 2008, Tromsø was selected as the venue of the Secretariat for the Arctic Council, and I am very proud to see that it is now the Arctic Capital and you deserve that – Tromsø.

We were actually able to develop an agenda of cooperation on very critical issues for people: Climate, environment, pollution, transport, search and rescue; step by step, combining experts and politicians. I think we built a foundation there which is going to be very important for our stability, also in more troubled times.

And for Norway's part, reaching an agreement with Russia on delimitation line in the Barents Arctic Sea is a milestone of diplomacy. Because at that time, we were able to divide around 175,000 square kilometres down the middle 50-50 with a dividing line that was done by the most modern parts of international law.

Now, we live in more difficult and dangerous times because geopolitical tension is coming to all corners of the world, also to the Arctic. And all the more important, I believe, and as Prime Minister of Norway I would say, let us preserve this extraordinary, good network of cooperation, of research and networks between states.

Let us salute that this Arctic Frontiers is the most sought-after conference on the Arctic in the Arctic Frontiers’ history. Welcome to all the press, coming from afar and coming from the air.

And I believe in times when Arctic is also being quite – from a perspective of tension, which we see now from so many other areas of the world – let us preserve the Arctic as throughout humanity being a vision for peaceful coexistence and decency.

And let me also say, if there were some who believed that the Arctic is an area without rules – because back at that time there were some saying that this is so harsh and so different, that this is “Terra Nullius” – as the lawyers would say, that there are no rules in the Arctic. And I would like to call the attention to a declaration that was signed in Ilulissat in Greenland in May 2008. I was there. So, were also the foreign ministers of all the Arctic states. And what we signed was a declaration that simply said that international law applies in the Arctic. The Law of the Sea applies in the Arctic. There will be peaceful settlement of disputes in the Arctic. So, if anyone at any time would come up with the idea that there is land available beyond international law, they should be reminded that that is not the case. And we, the Arctic states, should be primed among those who say in a decent and peaceful way that this is how we ought to live in the Arctic.

Finally, I would like to say, that most speeches we give talking about current affairs these days, they are quite sombre, quite dark, because a lot is not happening as we wanted to see. There is a full-scale war happening in our continent with dramatic ramifications and so on and so on. We have to address that with analytical skills and also with our values of what is really at stake.

But let us always have this extra ‘chapter’ when we make interventions, which is about hope and about community. And here we are; the Arctic is extraordinary, because there is so much out there that really drives imagination, creates enthusiasm, makes us to think of what we see of animal life and of nature – and also of the climate changes, reminding us that this is the prime task we have with us.

And remember also this, that the newest initiatives on reaching climate change coordinated efforts internationally, the evidence for all this, came from the Arctic. It was the research done in the Arctic in the first years of this century that led to the first conclusion of the IPCC about what was about to unfold.

So, I would like to salute all you researchers, and I think, you know, I'm very happy to come to Tromsø and be welcomed by the Mayor. But for those of you who come from the outside, I as a Norwegian can say – welcome to Norway and welcome to the Arctic capital, and I really salute the work you do. Thank you.

More information on Arctic Frontiers 2025:

• 2025 Beyond Borders - Arcticfrontiers.com