REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A LUNCH HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF NORWAY MR. JENS STOLTENBERG
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A LUNCH HOSTED BY THE PRIME MINISTER OF NORWAY, MR. JENS STOLTENBERG WEDNESDAY, 15TH OCTOBER
Your Majesties, Prime Minister, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
Martin and I are very happy to be hosted by you, Prime Minister, and by your wife Ingrid, in the company of Their Majesties, at this lunch today. We are also honoured by the presence of the President of the Storting, Government Ministers, the Mayor of Oslo and so many other distinguished guests. We are very grateful for the warm and generous welcome we have received on so many occasions on this the first Irish State Visit to Norway.
I am conscious that luncheon is taking place in this beautiful building - Akershus Castle which holds such a special place in Norway’s history. In living memory it has experienced occupation and tragedy. It was an honour and a very moving experience to lay a wreath yesterday in the castle grounds at that evocative national monument.
From our inception as sovereign actors on the international stage, both our countries have been committed to multilateralism. In 1930 the eight year old Irish state, scarred by recent strife and the relatively mature twenty-five year old Norwegian state vied with each other for a place on the Council of the League of Nations. We both succeeded on that occasion and did so again when we sought seats on the United Nations Security Council in 2001.
Sadly in the 1930s, the League of Nations failed and Norway was one among the many victims of that failure. However, neither your history nor ours has deterred us from adopting as a national guiding principle the promotion of peaceful resolution of conflict. We are both committed to a world order based on the rule of international law. We are both deeply committed to the United Nations and to the values embodied in its Charter and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is no surprise that Norway’s Trygve Lie was first Secretary General of the UN. And it is no surprise that Norway launched the initiative to ban cluster munitions. Happily that initiative came to fruition in Dublin in May this year with agreement on an International Convention and you will I am sure take righteous and well-deserved pride when the Convention is signed here in Oslo on the 3rd of December this year.
We in Ireland greatly admire Norway’s ability to apply its dedication to peace in many practical ways. You have had the courage to act as facilitator in some of the most intractable disputes around the world. This morning at the Norwegian Nobel Institute I shared some personal reflections on the Irish experience of the path to peace. Foreign Minister Gahr Støre said two years ago at the Nobel Peace Centre that dialogue is the “strategy of the brave”. This is undoubtedly true of the Irish experience at very many levels. At the intergovernmental level dialogue with Britain, greatly facilitated by our common membership of the EU since 1973, has led to real partnership in coming to terms with and dealing with an old quarrel which involves us both. Happily our island and its people are now at peace. The challenge now is to develop and grow, embed this hard-earned new culture of consensus.
We in Ireland also admire Norway’s dedication to genuine and substantial Development Assistance and are striving to emulate it. Norway and Ireland are agreed on the need to ensure a decent standard of living for all on the planet and to ensure that the United Nations becomes more effective in delivering on its Millennium Development Goals. Last month at the United Nations General Assembly the Irish Government launched its Hunger Task Force Report. Indelibly marked as we are by the memory of our own Great Famine, Ireland is determined to take a strong leadership role on the issue. I know that Norway has made strong commitments to reduce maternal and child mortality by 2015 and that you,
Prime Minister, have made strenuous efforts to strengthen international norms on decent working conditions for all and to enhance women’s roles throughout the world. Last month you visited Brazil and pledged a substantial sum for the renewal of the rainforests, a common lung to the planet and something that is in the interest of all of us.
The histories of Norway and Ireland were very much entwined in the past. In more modern times we have evolved differently. A millennium ago we belonged to a great North West Atlantic community, two of whose major cities were Trondheim and Dublin. Things took a while to settle after our first Viking visitors, but once they did there was much interchange in terms of trade, culture and people. In modern times, through Ireland’s membership of the European Union and Norway’s membership of the European Economic Area, mean that our markets and movement of people and goods are very closely connected. I was glad to be able to speak this morning at the business breakfast where some 150 business people from Norway and Ireland met and were busily networking as I left. I will be in Trondheim tomorrow to speak at a seminar on wave energy. There are tremendous opportunities for cooperation between us in developing the search for viable means to exploit renewable energy sources. There are also tremendous opportunities for us to develop our broader trading relations.
I might end by saying that Norway is an inspiration to Ireland in many ways. We admire your sense of community, the sense of cooperation we see between your social partners, your careful management of the fruit of your rich natural resources. We admire the fact that, although you are small in population, you do not hesitate to take on great burdens and responsibilities. You plan carefully for the future and share your wealth generously with the less fortunate around the world. You care about and invest heavily in world peace. And so, I am delighted to be here in Norway, more than happy to be in the company once again of Their Majesties, happy to get to know you, Prime Minister, and to meet with members of your Government. My earnest wish is that these contacts will be built upon in the future and that the close nexus between Ireland and Norway which existed in days past, still evident in our city streets and our people’s looks, will in a new generation grow to new levels of friendship and partnership.
I would like you to join with me now in a toast to true friendship between the people of Ireland and the people of Norway.