Today Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson is attending a meeting of the Nordic development ministers in Copenhagen. One of the key issues will be debt forgiveness for poor countries.

Denmark is hosting this year’s meeting of the Nordic development ministers, at which a number of issues on the international development policy agenda will be addressed. Among other things, the ministers will discuss the G8 initiative on multilateral debt relief for developing countries. Norway is seeking to ensure that the initiative is implemented in such a way that it provides real additional funds for development assistance without new conditions being imposed on debt relief.

The UN 2005 World Summit in New York on 14-16 September, at which development and security will be addressed, will also be a central topic at the meeting. This autumn, five years after the adoption of the UN Millennium Declaration on the global fight against poverty, the summit will take stock and agree on the way ahead. In advance of the summit there has been broad mobilisation on increasing development assistance and debt relief, for example in connection with the G8 Summit in Scotland in July. The Nordic countries will discuss how they can contribute to ensuring that at the summit the world’s heads of state and government make appropriate and concrete decisions that will enable us to reach the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

The Nordic development ministers will also discuss development policy aspects of international trade in light of the ongoing WTO negotiations.

Press contact: Deputy Director General Ola Brevik, tel.+ 47 91 69 44 33