DN: Norway is the only country that will not have a minister physically present during NATO meeting
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H) will not travel physically to NATO's foreign ministers meeting next week.
According to Dagens Næringsliv’s (DN) sources, Norway’s foreign minister will be one of the very few who will not get to meet Antony Blinken, the United States’ new foreign minister.
Communications manager Trude Måseide at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the newspaper that, among other things, Søreide has debates in the Norwegian parliament (Storting) the day after the meeting in Brussels and that a trip would put her in quarantine at that time.
Director Iver B. Neumann at Fridtjof Nansen’s Institute calls the decision not to travel to Brussels a misjudgment.
“Most countries allow their ministers to travel and have them vaccinated. In Norway, the Prime Minister almost makes it a point that she will wait. There is a striking lack of will to lead from the front,” he told DN.
“I believe we have safeguarded Norwegian foreign policy interests well through the pandemic through the use of digital meetings and conversations,” Ine Eriksen Søreide responded.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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