Støre: Nordic countries should be part of G20

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. Photo by Berit Hessen.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre suggests that the Nordic countries ought to be represented in the G20 group, which represents nations with the world’s strongest economies.

Denmark, Finland and Sweden are already represented in the G-20 because they belong to the European Union, which is a G-20 member. Norway is not in the EU.

“The Nordic countries ought to be present when the world leaders discuss questions around the  financial crisis, the climate and energy,” Støre says to the newspaper Bergens Tidende.

He has already discussed the matter with his Nordic colleagues, and will do so again, when they are all present at the UN General Assembly in New York this week.

In Støre’s opinion, the Nordic countries ought to be represented in the G20, because the Nordic nations as a bloc are among the world’s ten strongest economies as well as the largest contributors to the UN and other organizations.

The chances of four Nordic countries joining the G-20 group of developed nations as a single unit are slim, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said Sunday. “We have had excellent discussions with the Norwegians, Danes and the Finns, but you have to have a realistic appraisal how the chances are,” Borg told the Associated Press. “There is very limited interest from the G-20 countries to expand and especially add European countries.”

Borg’s comments came after he presented the outlines of next year’s Swedish budget. Swedish unemployment reached 9.8 percent in June and the government said Sunday that it expects the rate to climb to more than 11 percent near year.

Source: Norway Post / Businessweek.com