Opening Statement at Meeting Commemorating Johan Jørgen Holst

It is a great pleasure for me to open this meeting in memory of Johan Jørgen Holst. We are honoured by the presence of so many distiguished guests. Allow me particularly to welcome Dr. Henry Kissinger. Dr, Kissinger is already a legend, having shaped American and world politics over extended periods. He is the author of numerous books that have become standard reference works for any student of international affairs. He has been not only a colleague, but a friend of several Norwegian foreign ministers, and for a scholarly person like Johan Jørgen it was natural to look to Henry Kissinger with great admiration and respect and to seek his seasoned advice.

Johan Jørgen Holst served his country and the international community with distinction in a number of capacities. He won global recognition for his role in facilitating the secret negotiations between Israel and the PLO, and to the defining dramatic events on the South Lawn on 13 September 1993.

An eminent expert on foreign and security policy he enriched cabinet deliberations and indeed the public debate as Minister of Defense and later Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He served as special adviser to the World Commission on Environment and Development where he did pioneer work on security, development and environment. He had also been my natural choice of adviser when I joined the Palme Comission on security and disarmament, that published the report Common Security.

Johan Jørgen Holst firmly believed in NATO as a guarantor of stability and peace. He was convinced that lasting peace and stability in Europe could only be achieved through integration and cooperation between all European states, including Russia. He also firmly believed in the EU as a catalyst for European integration and was a staunch supporter of Norwegian membership of the European Union.

On this occasion, one year after his premature death, I would like to say a few words about Norway's foreign policy challenges as we see them after the recent referendum on Norwegian membership of the European Union.

The EU member states, now including all our nordic neighbours on the European continent, will remain Norway's most important economic and political partners. Our economy is an integral part of the European economy. Europe's security is vital to our security.We share the same environment. These basic facts will have to underpin our European policy in the years to come.

No other European country has closer ties with the European Union than Norway. Even though other countries have access to EU meetings by virtue of the fact that they have membership as their xplicit goal, we and Iceland alone are non-members and part of the internal market through the EEA Agreement. Norway is allied with 11 EU countries in NATO, and we are an associate member of the Western European Union.

A Declaration on political dialogue is appended to the EEA Agreement. We intend to make use of he declaration, which will be in the interest of all. We wish to keep in close contact with our European friends and allies when they discuss foreign policy and security issues. And I believe the European Union would benefit also from some of our experience, such as from our relations with neighbouring Russia, our active role in the Middle East and our long-standing participation in UN peace-keeping operations.

NATO and the transatlantic partnership is indispensable to Norway and form the mainstay of Norwegian security policy. The Alliance will remain one of the main instruments for making Norwegian interests and priorities known, and for exerting influence on decisions relevant to our security. We fully support the contribution NATO is making to the integration of Europe by embarking on a process of transformation, which over time will make it more of a political organization. We must, however, ensure that this process does not impede NATO's ability to carry out its core functions.

The EU is starting out on the road to a common foreign and security politcy. This change is of course not done overnight, by countries who each have their own centuries-long tradition of working bilaterally and individually. While the EU and the WEU are upgrading their capacity to act toigether, NATO will continue to play a crucial role, provided, in the words of Dr. Kissinger, that it is able to focus on common necessities as it did previously on common fears.

A continued US commitment to Europe, including an adequate military presence, is an essential prerequisite for the credibility of the European security structure in general. Peace and stability require, moreover,that we act according to a wider agenda than NATO and WEU can offer, one that includes preventive diplomacy, humanitarian relief, peace-keeping, and economic and environmental cooperation. Here the OSCE too can play a more prominent role, supplemented by regional arrangements such as the Baltic cooperation and the Barents cooperation in the High North.

The Barents cooperation is a continuation and adaptation of Norway's policy rowards Russia. We have decades of experience of managing our relations in the North. Reassurance and predictability ensured stability and a low level of tension also during the iciest days of the Cold War. Now we arev seeking to establish regional economic and cultural cooperation between the countries in the North of Europe and we are pleased by the continued EU and US interest in our endeavours.

It is in the North that the new Russia meets the West. Closer contacts in these areas will have an important effect on the policy developed by Russia towards the West and that developed by the West towards Russia. The new situation in the High North, characterized by reduced tension, a greater Russian openness and Sweden and Finland as members of the European Union, has created new opportunities. The Barents initiative constitutes a valuable addition to the poorly developed network of political and economic ties between Russia and the Western parts of Europe

Today Russia does not pose any military threat, but the instability of the political situation represents a new kind of security threat that it would be foolish to ignore. We have talked about new risks and uncertainties. Now Chechnya is happening. The terrible acts of war and breaches of human rights taking place there, have appalled us. We have urged and will continue to urge Russia and the Chechens to reach a political solution. Meanwhile, we must provide humanitarian assistance to the people who are so severely afflicted.

Northwestern Russia is facing a major ecological crisis, not least with regard to radioactive contamination. Norway attaches great importance to cleaning up the environment in the High North. The challenges facing us are however of such a magnitude that they far exceeds both Russia's and Norway's capacity to deal with them. Many countries may be affected by the nuclear waste threat, and a broad-based international efforts is clearly needed to deal with this problem.

Only a few years after the end of the Cold War, many of the basic parameters of Norwegian foreign and security policy have changed dramatically. For the first time in history our Nordic neighbours are members of a European organization in which we do not fully participate. Formally, they are more integrated into Europe than we are. This is a new situation.

The Nordic countries have a long tradition of working together on international affairs not least in the United Nations. In later years we have opened up for a stronger Nordic cooperation. It is almost ironic that it took an all-European process such as the creation of the European Economic Area (EEA) to create a Nordic internal market, which had been on our agenda for decades without success. The end of the Cold War now allows us to work together on a wider agenda than before, and foreign policy has been introduced as an issue also in the Nordic Council.

The challenge is for us to make the best of a situation in which our Nordic neighbours will be focusing increasingly on EU affairs. But I believe the true basis for our continued cooperation lies in this: Norway has not changed, we have not turned inward or changed our fundamental priorities. We can be counted on as a reliable Nordic, European and trans-Atlantic partners also in the future. Our friends will recognize and be able to rely on Norway in the future, as we strive to achieve our common goals.