The Prime Minister´s dinner speech at the One Ocean Summit’s dinner

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It feels good to be in ‘the Ocean capital’ of Norway! Dear hosts, dear friends of the ocean,

I think it is appropriate to bring us ‘down to earth’ on board this ship and start with Jon Fosse. I brought with me a poem called “Wave”. In English, I will read its first line;

I see a wave

and I think that everything is movement

I don’t want to know what it means

 

In (ny-)Norwegian;

Eg ser ei bølgje

og eg tenkjer at alt er i bevegelse

eg vil ikkje vite kva det betyr

How is it that we all enjoy it – when we sit and look at the ocean, at the waves, for hours? How does this make us relaxed?

Maybe it should make us concerned and worried. I see the ocean as a threatened species, and we put species on red lists, and we need to take better care of the ocean, as we have discussed today.

So, I salute the One Ocean Week. I am very glad to be here, for the second, consecutive year, and I would also like to come back – because this is worthwhile.

Now, I have three points I would like to share with you on this occasion.

First – and I think that is appropriate – it is a serious issue: on security.

Our security environment is now demanding. We live in the ‘sharp end’ of the security policy. In the years to come, we will have to spend more resources on defence and preparedness.

We have benefitted from a ‘peace dividend’ for many years, and now we have to pay ‘the insurance for peace’.

I have put forward a new Long-Term Plan on Defence, for which we seek a broad majority, across the board in the Parliament; and it has this objective of taking care of our freedom, liberty, democracy. And one of many priorities – one of the many important things there – is to strengthen the Navy.

Today, I visited a submarine and a frigate at Håkonsvern. We will need new frigates and new submarines, it is no way around it, and I salute the tremendous fine people we have on board these ships – our youth – they are professionals, and they have high skills.

And I would like to come back to what I mentioned earlier today – because, you know – thinking about the Vågen back to the Medieval Age – and let me say to those who did not hear me today, because I found this in the book that I read about king Magnus Lagabøte – that when he sailed to the Orkney Islands, he had over 300 ships with him – and they were 100 persons on average on each ship, and when you add up – then, that make 30 000 people. So, well consider that when king Håkon sailed to Scotland in 1261 (and he never came back), it was at that time the biggest naval mobilization of the North Sea ever. And the Admiral today informed me that they are around 3 300 in the Norwegian Navy today, so – well, my goodness, think about that …

I myself I have served in the Norwegian Navy and I was very proud today to be a the same port where the old Norwegian mine snipers that I used to sail – used as a port, when I was there, more than 40 years ago – but that was another age.

But this is serious – oceans are binding us together – and we need to preserve our freedom and liberty through the oceans – because we have seven times more ocean and seabed than we have land. And we do not choose our geography and we have neighbours that we have to deal with.

The second point I want to highlight is about knowledge.

And this conference is really about the finest knowledge. You all know that – all of you present here today – and I want to salute the Rector of the University of Bergen and the Director of the Institute of Marine Research, among others, for leading the strongest contributors of ocean knowledge in the world. We are well into UNESCO’s Ocean Decade – I am proud to be an ambassador for that – so thanks to you, we are moving forward, and we should really spend the remaining years of the Decade to bring the knowledge and science forward.

Because we need facts, research and knowledge – for innovation – and today’s debate – I think – showed that we are looking for the best solutions, for the right answers – of the many big issues we are dealing with – and we need many right answers, at the same time. And we have to combine them – and the only, sometimes ‘clumsy’ way of doing that, is through democratic decisions; that is how we find solutions. It is a hard struggle, I can tell you, but that is the way we have to move ahead.

Our governance should always be knowledge-based, science-founded. There will be no green shift, there will be no Paris goals reached, there will be no zero-emission society, if we do not focus on knowledge and science.

And therefore, we have to educate and recruit the new, the next generation, the youth. Not just researchers, but all kinds of skilled professionals, across the board. So let me also thank you, the Youth Panel, thank you for coming up with the idea of a Youth Panel, and that you are here and participating in the debates. Because I believe that what this is really about – it is to drive the scientific ‘edge’ up, using our curiosity – then we’ll find solutions.

The generations before us, they did manage, and how will we manage – and this leads me to my third point.

I wanted to take time here to share with you a more personal and political perspective, which I do not always do in public. I would like to call for moderation, balance and robustness.

I often spend time with a marine biologist friend, to understand what happens in the sea. You know, we have, across the board, a big, shared concern about the situation in the Oslo Fjord, about the health of the fish species there, due to too much pollution coming into the fjord.

We know, from experience, that wise marine policy, based on wise conservation and management, keep the fish populations healthy and robust. And when they are left alone, in sufficiently large areas, fish stocks show an amazing ability to rebuild and restore. So, now, if or when we are losing the fish in the Oslo Fjord, and if we stop the emissions coming into the fjord, then the fish can come back, it is possible, I think.

And I think that all of us, in our administrations, in industries, businesses and in sciences, we should therefore build moderation into our systems, in the way we preserve these fish populations – and other species. Especially now, when the climate change is causing effects, some of them we know, but the most worrying things are the ones we do not know, and the riddling effects, and the tipping points, and we don’t really know what falls back or comes ‘on the other side’.

The ocean is robust, yes, but just as long as we keep it that way. So, in concrete terms, what does all that mean? And I am not an expert, I just ask. Perhaps we should allow some species to live longer before we harvest them? And my friend, the marine biologist tells me that whether you catch a fish of one year age than two years age or three years age, makes a very big difference. So how we organise our quota system is an important task.

Perhaps we should let the largest and oldest species escape the fishing gear, to see if that can build robustness. – Because we need numerous stocks and we need strong populations in the ongoing blue transformation – if they are to be successful. So, again, for us human beings, it is a matter of finding the right balance, and stick to moderation.

Friends,

Let me come back to this beautiful ship and the expedition you have behind you – and the expedition plans you have ahead. I really hope I can join you one day, at least for one stretch.

And let us come back to the ship’s name, the man himself, statsraad Kristofer Diedrich Lehmkuhl; he served as cabinet minister during an extraordinary time for Norway, from 1905 to 1907; they must indeed have been pretty uncertain – in those times – on how ‘to be’ a new, independent country, trying to be useful and find a role and stability in a world that was complex.

During turbulent times Minister Lehmkuhl was also able to get this beautiful tallship, built in Germany in 1914, over from Newcastle, England, to Bergen in the early 1920s. He wanted to take better care of her, and make her as a ship to train Norwegian sailors. And so it was, even with the globe, the ocean, as a training ground.

He also initiated the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), among other things. Sailing and business, to me that is Bergen.

Finally, I would like to thank you, Captain of Lehmkuhl, the Mayor of Bergen, the Vestland County Mayor, and many more, hosts and sponsors, public and private, that have brought us all together for the One Ocean Week. There is only one ocean, only one Statsraad Lehmkuhl, and only one Ocean City.

Thank you.