Remarks Nord i Sør Conference

Remarks as delivered by Chargé d’affaires, a.i. Eric Meyer on January 7, 2025, Oslo, Norway

Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today. I recognize that, as an American – and an American living in Oslo, at that! – I may not be the most obvious choice of speakers for a conference focused on bringing North Norway to the South. However, as the acting U.S. ambassador to Norway – or chargé d’affaires, as we say – I’m pleased to say that I’m here to hopefully make clear that North Norway plays a critical role in the broader bilateral relationship between our two countries. From security to Arctic research – not to mention the people to people ties built through academic and professional exchanges – the North is key to U.S. objectives here in Norway. And, with Sapmi covering the whole of North Norway, the U.S. relationship with our Sami partners is important as well.

Of course, we have also made a very visible investment in our relationship with North Norway over the last two years, opening our American Presence Post in Tromsø in October of 2023. In the first year or so of operations, our team there have travelled widely across Nordlands, Troms, Finnmark, and Svalbard. In just my first four months here in Norway, I myself have had a chance to visit Bodø, Tromsø, Senja, and even Longyearbyen.

We will continue our personal outreach to people across the region in 2025, because we are actively searching for opportunities to partner with civil society, with businesses, with local leaders, and with academia. While we’ve enjoyed decades of excellent cooperation and partnership with the North, now we have a diplomat in the region, working side-by-side with local experts and devoted to understanding the challenges and opportunities of the region every day.

We are working with local universities to raise awareness of academic exchange opportunities in the United States, to include the prestigious Fulbright program. And we’ve increased the number of young emerging leaders from the North – to include at least one I see in the audience here today – taking part in programs that enable them to experience our country while building ties with their American peers. Likewise, we’re supporting the expansion of ties with U.S. businesses and industry in the High North, to include the recent visit by a delegation hosted by Innovation Norway from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, which is looking to build a long-term partnership with Tromsø. Clearly, we are engaging with the North in a variety of new and exciting ways.

All of these conversations with individuals and institutions in North Norway have served to underscore that every aspect of the U.S.-Norway bilateral relationship – from defense, energy security, and economic development, to critical infrastructure and indigenous rights – is deeply interconnected in the North. It is essential, therefore, that we continue to ensure our policy priorities for the broader Arctic region remain closely aligned with and complement our efforts to expand collaboration in North Norway. As such, I look forward to productive conversations with our U.S. participants, their Norwegian counterparts, and other key stakeholders at this year’s Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø later this month.

Militarily, U.S. forces have long valued the ability to exercise and train in the Arctic alongside their Norwegian and other Allied counterparts – and doing so is essential to our shared security. And now we need to increasingly include new NATO members Sweden and Finland in those conversations as well to share lessons learned and best practices for sustainable military operations.

On the business side, the United States sees great opportunity in North Norway. Norway’s investments making Andøya and Tromsø into Arctic hubs for space innovation have opened new avenues for cooperation with the United States on the peaceful use of space for purposes that make us all better connected and more secure. Norway’s investments in its blue economy hold the promise of unlocking new arctic-based solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges – from food to pharmaceuticals.

In all cases, the United States seeks to build on our past successes, while forging newer and stronger ties directly with our partners in the North.

So, in closing, I want to thank our hosts today for giving me the chance to speak with you all directly. Not just so that I could offer a few thoughts on what we’ve learned in the past year and our priorities for the one to come, but also to emphasize that the United States is listening to voices from the North. That we want to be a part of the conversation. That we recognize that our responsibilities as an Arctic ally mean engaging directly with people in Norway’s north as well.

I hope our American Presence Post, in its first year, has demonstrated that we’re listening. The conversations that you all have with our colleagues Adam, Nils, and Mina – and thank you, by the way, for being so welcoming and willing to engage with them – are helping to ensure that our policymaking in Washington is well informed. It is an important voice. Continue to use it, and we will continue to listen. I look forward to continuing to travel to the region in the coming years, and I look forward to working together with North Norway.

Thank you.