Foreign Pool Report #1 - Background on Norwegian PM St�re
- From
- Fouad Youcefi
- Sent
- Thursday, April 24, 2025, 9:32 AM
Hi folks,
I will be your foreign pooler today, covering the visit of the Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St�re (pronounced "Stir-eh") on this Bring Your Kids to Work Day. This will be the first in-person meeting between the two leaders although there will be one very familiar face for Trump in the room, in the form of former Nato Secretary General, nowadays Finance Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg.
Here is a brief background that I hope will be helpful to your coverage of today's events:
Background
Jonas Gahr St�re has been Prime Minister (or 'statsminister' in Norwegian) since October 14, 2021, following the Norwegian Labour Party’s victory in the 2021 parliamentary elections. He has been the leader of the Labour Party since 2014 and served 8 years as minister of Foreign Affairs, in part when Mr. Stoltenberg was Prime Minister. In 2010, St�re notably helped resolve a decades long dispute between Norway and Russia regarding offshore borders in the Arctic. In 2008 he was targeted in a Taliban attack while visiting Kabul. Seven people were killed in the attack on Serena Hotel, but Mr. St�re survived unharmed.
St�re's background, born into a wealthy shipbroker family on August 25, 1960, has not always helped his political ambitions in the Labour Party, a traditional worker's party in Norway, with Reuters one time dubbing him a "millionaire socialist".
The PM also has experience from the Navy, pursuing naval officer training at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy in Bergen from 1879 to 1981. He is also fluent in French after studying political science at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris from 1981 to 1985. Today he is married to Marit Slagsvold, and they have three children.
Previous meetings
In November 2024, St�re spoke to President Trump on the phone following his election victory, noting in a press release that Norway is "aware that the change of government in the US may affect cooperation in areas of importance to Norway".
In 2022 Jonas Gahr St�re briefly met with then President Joe Biden in Washington, just a few weeks before Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, indicating in a readout that they discussed how Nato should address the Russian military build up on the Ukrainian border.
Expected topics
The bilateral meeting is expected to focus on the war in Ukraine, and comes at a pivotal time as President Trump has threathened to withdraw the US from the role of peace broker, while other NATO allies, such as Norway has reiterated their support for Ukraine. PM St�re in a statement said "The United States is our most important ally, and in a turbulent and demanding security policy time, the close contact between our two countries is very important."
Trade will be another issue of the discussions as President Trump imposed 15% tariffs on Norway before temporarily bringing the rate down to 10% for 90 days. Norway in turn decided not to retaliate against the US.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Fouad Youcefi
Fouad Youcefi
Chief White House Correspondent
Foreign News dep. - Washington bureau
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