3 March 2006

NATO Secretary General visits Norway News 02/03/2006 - NATO Secretary General to visit Norway 01/03/2006 - NATO Norwegian Crown Prince visits NATO 07/02/2006 - ISAF ISAF shows restraint during violent demonstrations in Meymaneh Opinions A new NATO - Speech by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, at the Norwegian Atlantic Committee, Oslo On 3 March, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer paid a one-day visit to Oslo, for meetings with the country’s leadership. The Secretary General met with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Defence Minister Anne-Grethe Strom-Erichsen and with members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee of Defence. The discussions focused on the Alliance’s political agenda ahead of the upcoming NATO Summit in Riga, the way ahead for NATO’s operations and missions, and defence reform in Norway. Praise for Norway The Secretary General praised the professionalism and restraint shown by Norwegian personnel serving in the NATO-led Provincial Reconstruction Team in Meymannah, Afghanistan, during the recent unrest in the country. On 7 February, a large crowd of violent demonstrators tried to enter the Team’s compound during protests over the publication by Western newspapers of cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad. During his visit, Mr. De Hoop Scheffer also met with students and gave a speech at the University of Oslo, saying that the Alliance today is a “new NATO”. “A NATO that provides security in new ways and new places,” stressed the Secretary General, “An Alliance that undertakes new missions, and that features new members as well as new partners.”