Dear Peter,

You are just too matter-of-factly Scandinavian informal that I find it natural to address you with title and the whole works.

And you are a friend.

Like the rest of you.

So: Dear friends,

Welcome to this dinner at Holmenkollen Park Hotel. With its commanding view of Oslo and the surrounding scenery, this hotel could probably survive on location alone. But I hope you will discover that it tries to please the palate as much as it pleases the eye.

UNAIDS is a unique partnership between multilateral organizations as diverse as the WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, the World Bank, UNDP, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Drug Control Program, with ILO and others knocking at the door. As such it is an interesting experiment in UN reform.

UNAIDS was created on the premise that HIV/AIDS was rapidly becoming far more than a health issue. - That it was rapidly becoming the single largest barrier to development in a growing number of countries, particularly in Africa. That it was not only undercutting future development, but threatening to undo the hard-won progress of the past as well. Threatening to send generations back into poverty. Threatening to turn millions of children into orphans, to make small children breadwinners and care providers for smaller siblings still.

Doomsday sayers are usually proven wrong (otherwise we wouldn’t be here, I guess), but in the case of AIDS, the worst case scenarios of yesterday are unfolding today.

It is seldom wise to push all buttons at the same time. But HIV/AIDS is the "all systems go" issue of our time. It is a war that must be fought on many fronts simultaneously. But each front must be part of a larger battle plan, an overall strategy. UNAIDS was created to draw up that battle plan, to provide that strategy for combat.

That is why Norway has been a strong supporter of UNAIDS since its inception in 1996. That is why we will remain a strong supporter, outspoken in our praise as well as in our criticism.

During our talks today we have touched on areas where we have questions or see room for improvement. - Such as country level coordination. Such as reaching more men with advocacy and education. Reaching men where men are: in business and labor organizations, in army barracks.

Norway will remain a strong supporter because failure is not an option.

For that, our mission is far too important

We must continue to blow the battle horn in Africa and elsewhere, but the war on AIDS has a home front as well. Preaching partnership and coordination to UNAIDS will sound more convincing if we partner and coordinate at home. Preaching advocacy to African leaders will be more persuasive if we advocate at home. Arguing prevention and education to African business and labor will be most effective coming from business and labor at home.

This is the thinking behind the recently established Forum for Aids and Development, where leaders of labor, business, culture, sports, churches, NGOs and mass media are invited to partner against AIDS at home and abroad. - To speak out in Norway like we ask Africans to speak out in Africa, and Asians in Asia. To be our home grown UNAIDS (NORAIDS?).

To push all the buttons.

To let all systems go.

We met earlier today. Some of you are here tonight. All of you are partners.

The effort is already yielding results. A Norwegian construction company with a large contract in Africa recently came to us with a proposal to include an AIDS component. We are now working on a pilot agreement.

For companies this is not just corporate social responsibility. It is enlightened self-interest. That holds true for other institutions as well.

This is also the thinking behind the recent establishment of an AIDS-team in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, consisting of the Director Generals of each and every department. The administrative department, the legal department, the security department. You name it. I like to think of the team as my Joint Chiefs of Staff in the war against AIDS.

Some of the newly appointed generals were startled at first, but not for long. The head of the legal department discovered language in EFTA agreements with third parties that was unnecessarily restrictive on drug licensing. He did something about it. The trade department is actively looking at how Norway can play a catalytic role in letting developing countries make better use of the opportunities afforded by the TRIPS agreement, so as to gain better access to drugs against HIV/AIDS at reasonable prices. The administrative department has initiated a number of awareness raising and training projects.

One important arena for the new team - and where we have already partnered with UNAIDS - is the Security Council. Peter Piot wants us to pick it up where Richard Holbrooke left off. I’m not sure our UN ambassador has it in himself to be that expansive, but we have instructed him to grow fast!

I have talked about partnerships at home and abroad. But where every action and every partnership somehow has to come together is in the hardest hit countries in Africa and elsewhere. That has been a main theme of our meetings in the course of the day. That is the standard against which all our efforts will - in the end - be measured.

I could say a lot more on that, but I fear that the blood pressure of our chef is already reaching dangerous levels. So I’ll stop there. - Just asking you to join me in a toast for UNAIDS, for the Forum on AIDS and Development, for the partnerships that remain our best hope for combating – and one day defeating - AIDS.

Thank you, all.