Foreign Minister Børge Brende officially opened the Oslo Forum on Tuesday morning, 14th of June, with the company of Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamad Javad Zarif and EU Chief of Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.
The main topic for this year’s network conference is to gather conflict stakeholders, politicians and various players involved in peace processes to have a conversations and meetings at Losby Gods while there are large numbers of conflicts occurring around the world.
– We are living in a turbulent time where international terrorism, humanitarian crises and massive immigration are taking over the global agenda in all discussions. Trend shows that conflicts become more and more intense, said by Børge Brende as part of his welcoming speech for participants.
He pointed to the fact that more than 200,000 people have lost their lives in wars over the last two years – the highest number in last 25 years. Moreover, the number of refugees reached 70,000 – the highest since World War II.
Brende, Mogherini and Zarif pointed out that not everything is dark and some instances diplomacy is giving fruits and as example they referred to the very important and pioneering nuclear deal made between Iran and major powerful countries last year. The agreement will ensure that Iran’s nuclear program is only used for peaceful purposes and led to considerable removal of sanctions made against Iran.
– The world is definitely not in a good condition but there are ways to find better solutions for complex issues, stated by Mogherini.
Mohamad Javad Zarif also spoke warmly about diplomatic solutions and emphasized that in war there are no winners, just losers but in variant degrees.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
