Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s introduction at the press conference after meeting with the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez

As delivered

Dear all of you, good afternoon,

It is a great pleasure for me to receive my friend and partner, the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, to Oslo.

We have a lot to talk about. We agree on so many issues. Today, there has been one single issue on the agenda, the situation in the Middle East, the tragedy unfolding in Gaza.

Norway and Spain are like-minded countries on these issues. We both comdemned in the strongest possible terms the heinous attacks in Israel on the 7th of October. We have been very clear on expressing ourselves and condemning also the way the warfare in Gaza has taken place, in a disproportionate way, affected civilians, targeted civilians, and killed a large number of innocent civilians and children. We agree to ask for immediate humanitarian access, ceasefire, and the release of the hostages being held.

So, we have exchanged views on the situation. Prime Minister Sánchez has been travelling in the region. We have shared our perspectives with our staffs.

What we have also discussed is the issue of a future recognition of the State of Palestine. And from the Norwegian side I would say that here too, we are very like-minded. Norway stands ready to recognize the State of Palestine and to recognize its place, appropriate place, in the United Nations.

The question is at what moment and in what setting would we do that in order to support the process towards peace in the region. And what this meeting today has made clear is that we will stay very closely coordinated, between Madrid and Oslo, two cities which have a meaning in the Middle East situation. It was the Madrid Conference in the early 1990s that came before the Oslo Accords in 1993.

And I am very grateful that today we can renew our contact and confirm our coordination on this issue. Norway stands ready to recognize a democratic Palestine, authorities that can run both the West Bank and Gaza. We are supporting the Palestinian Authority and the new Prime Minister.

And again, working with countries in the region, and like-minded countries like Spain, we will be actively engaged on this issue in the coming weeks, so President Sánchez, please.