Åpning av utstillingen ”Ikke bare laks og pølser”

Much more than salmon and sausages…

Dear guests,

It is a great pleasure for me to be here in Essen with you tonight. I am in Germany as part of a large delegation for the state visit by their majesties, the King and Queen of Norway. During this visit, I get a good overview of how strong the relationship between Norway and Germany is today. Tonight we are here in this great building that is the Red Dot Design Museum,  to open an exhibition that shows some of the background for this.

The exhibition ”Not just salmon and sausages: a centennial of Norwegian-German relations” was displayed for the first time in Oslo in 2005, the year of the Norwegian centennial, to celebrate one hundred years of relations between Norway and Germany. Germany was one of the first nations to accept the Norwegian independence in 1905, something we very much appreciated at that time. Now, the dust has settled a bit after the celebrations (the relationship survived the ”one-hundred-years-crisis), and we find that the relevance of this exhibition has not faded since 2005. The relations between Norway and Germany have grown even stronger, and we find new areas where our collaborations and joint efforts are important. The centennial in 2005 gave us a chance to look back and appreciate what we have done; now, however, it is time to face the future, to see the opportunities that lie ahead.

In Norway, our government has recently developed a new strategy for cooperation with Germany. This strategy describes in detail how Norway and Germany can work together in the future, within fields such as energy, security, commercial development and the high north areas, as well as my areas of responsibility, education and research. And these are, in my opinion, the most important ones.

As Norway’s minister for education and research, I am especially concerned with how out two nations can relate through exchange of knowledge and experiences, and through language learning. A long time before 1905, exchange of students and researchers was a vital part of our relationship. This has become even more important today, in a globalised world where no national borders or language barriers can stop the flow of knowledge.  Through the European Bologna process, we have become part of a larger structure that makes it easier for students to travel between our countries.  EU’s new program for lifelong learning allows more and more young people to travel as part of their education, and Germany is one of the most popular destinations for Norwegian youth. There is an increasing interest among Norwegian students for an educational exchange with Germany, and at the same time, Norwegian institutions of higher education also register an upswing in the number of German students who with to study abroad in Norway.

Germany and Norway also has an extensive collaboration within various fields of research, one of them being the important fields of environmental and climate research. Among other things, Germany has a research base on Svalbard (Spitsbergen) , and the University centre up there in the Arctic is a popular destination for German students. Through collaborations such as these, we can meet tomorrow’s challenges.

It is important to keep building the good relationship, and to encourage more pupils, students, teachers, scientists and others to travel between our countries. Tomorrow I am opening the very first Norwegian-German Youth Forum, and I know that the participants are here tonight. One hundred young people from Norway and Germany are going to be gathered here for two days, to learn together about the important topic of climate and environment. And this is the same topic that seventy Norwegian and German top scientists are going to discuss in Dusseldorf tomorrow, where a German-Norwegian research seminar is taking place.

In other words: There is a lot to be said for salmon and sausages, but I believe that the in future of the relationship, it is in the fields of education and knowledge that our relations will be built.

It is a great pleasure for me to open the exhibition ”Not just salmon and sausages: A centennial of Norwegian-German relations”. Thank you.