Thorvald Stoltenberg visited BaNeFF 2014 in Oslo

IMG_8480BaNeFF 2014 visited Thorvald Stoltenberg. He is a former Norwegian politician. His ancestors stem from Tønsberg. He served as Minister of Defense (1979–81) and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1987–1989 and 1990–1993) in two Labour governments. He was diplomat at former Yugoslavia, placed in Belgrade.

From 1989 to 1990 he was appointed Norwegian Ambassador to the UN. In 1990 he became the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but served only one year before rejoining the Norwegian government. In 1992, Thorvald Stoltenberg, together with nine Baltic Ministers of Foreign Affairs and an EU commissioner, founded the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and the EuroFaculty. In 1993 appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and UN Co-Chairman of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia. Thorvald Stoltenberg was also the UN witness at the signing of Erdut Agreement.

In 2003 he was appointed Chairman of the Board of International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA). Between 1999 and 2008 he was President of the Norwegian Red Cross, the only president to serve three terms. He is also a member of the Trilateral Commission, and holds a seat on their Executive Committee.

He married Karin née Heiberg (1931-2012) in 1957. Their son, Jens Stoltenberg (b. 1959), followed him into politics and served as Prime Minister of Norway from October 2005 to October 2013.