Message from the Ambassador

Thank you for visiting our website.

I have been British Ambassador in Norway since May 2006. It is both a privilege and a pleasure to work in Norway and to represent British interests here. Britain and Norway have a long and close relationship, supported by warm personal links between our people.

The embassy had a busy year in 2008. We joined forces with our other embassies in the Nordic countries to create a Nordic Network. These 5 embassies have been working increasingly closely together so that we are able to share ideas and provide a valuable regional perspective to our work. In 2009 the network is expanding to include our embassies in the Baltic countries as well. Our Trade and Investment Department has also joined forces with our its Nordic counterparts to form 'Team Nordic'.  The change means that we are able to provide UK companies looking to expand into overseas markets, with options embracing all five countries. At the same time we have expanded the help that we offer to foreign businesses wishing to establish in the UK. In 2008 the Norway team alone assisted more than 500 British and Norwegian business people with market research and advice. To find out more about our business services please do visit our Doing Business pages. 

Our passport and visa section took in 3675 visa applications and we issued 1600 passports. In the political section we have been working closely with Norway across a wide range of foreign and defence policy and particularly on energy and climate change. To give you a couple of examples we organised a meeting in Trondheim on Carbon Capture and Storage for key players from other European countries to give them the chance to hear about Norway's expertise in this area.  In London the UK and Norway co-hosted a donor's meeting for the Middle East Peace Process in May.

The highlights of 2008 for me personally included 2 visits by our Foreign Secretary, David Miliband who visited Oslo in both May and December and the chance to meet key players in the energy industry at the Offshore Northern Seas Exhibition in Stavanger. I look forward to another busy year and more excellent co-operation in 2009.