Ban will visit Norway August 30-September 2. The main aim for his visit to Norway is to discuss challenges in the north connected with climate change with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre.
Also the Millennium Development Goals, the financial crisis and UN reforms will be issues of discussion, a press release from the Norwegian Prime Minister’s office reads.
On Svalbard, Ban will visit the Norwegian and Korean scientific stations in Ny-Ålesund and Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen, the so-called Doomsday Vault. Minister of Environment Erik Solheim will be accompanying the Secretary-General on his visit to Svalbard.
- It is a pleasure to welcome the UN Secretary-General to Norway, Prime Minister Stoltenberg says. –The fact that Ban’s first visit to Norway as UN Secretary-General focuses on climate challenges is of special importance now, when the world society is preparing to gather on a new climate agreement in Copenhagen in December, Stoltenberg says.
