Closer cooperation with Myanmar

Prime Ministers Jens Stoltenberg and Helle Thorning-Schmidt today opened the Norwegian–Danish embassy office in Yangon in Myanmar.

“The largest country in South-East Asia, which has been closed to the outside world for so many years, is now beginning to open up. Cooperation between Norway and Myanmar is growing rapidly. I am therefore pleased that we will now have a permanent diplomatic presence in Yangon,” commented Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Over the last eighteen months, Myanmar has engaged in a process of reforms that has opened the country to the outside world. Norway recognised these reforms at an early stage, and was the first country in the West to lift its sanctions against Myanmar. In the light of the changes that have been made, there is also growing cooperation between Norway and Myanmar in a number of areas, including development assistance, capacity building, peace efforts and business.

“A great many of Myanmar’s 60 million inhabitants are living in poverty, and there is a need for economic reforms and jobs. Norway will seek to assist Myanmar in a number of areas, and the new embassy office will follow up these efforts,” Mr Stoltenberg said. 

Norway’s embassy office in Yangon, which is located in the same building as the Danish embassy office, reports to the Embassy in Bangkok.

In Myanmar, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide have held meetings with President Thein Sein, and with Speaker of the Myanmar’s lower chamber of parliament Shwe Mann, Minister at the President’s Office and chief peace negotiator Aung Min, and leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Minister Aung Min also attended the opening of the embassy office.