Royal Norwegian Embassy in The Hague

We're excited to welcome our new interns, Oda and Edith! Oda Marte Topland (23), from Grimstad in southern Norway, has pursued her studies in Oslo, The Hague, and Maastricht. She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Oslo and a Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development from the United Nations University-MERIT in Maastricht. She will join our bilateral team, focusing on political reporting and organising cultural and business events. Edith Meek Allern (25), from Sandnessjøen, Nordland, is in her fourth year of a master's in law at the University of Oslo. She holds a bachelor's degree in international relations and has previously worked with democracy and human rights education at Utøya and as a journalist at Framtida. She will be handling multilateral tasks, representing Norwegian interests at the ICC, the ICJ and the OPCW in The Hague and writing insightful reports.

An inevitable part of diplomacy is the arrival and departure of ambassadors. Today, we say goodbye to Bård Ivar Svendsen, who for the past four years has been Norway’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the international institutions in The Hague.   When ambassador Svendsen arrived to The Hague in 2020, the world was still heavily dominated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meetings and events had to be held digitally. Fortunately, after a while, the ambassador was able to travel across the Netherlands and Luxembourg to meet with regional and local authorities, businesses and civil society. Norwegian solutions for the energy transition, the highly popular Norwegian arts and literature, and the security of the Arctic region were some of the key topics during ambassador Svendsen’s tenure.   At the international institutions in The Hague, ambassador Svendsen was the calm and steadfast voice of Norway in challenging times. A very memorable experiences was his work as Chairperson of the 26th OPCW Conference of States Parties.   Here at the embassy, we would particularly like to thank Bård for his warm and dedicated leadership. Kjære Bård, det har vært en glede å samarbeide med deg. Vi ønsker deg og Sergejs alt godt i Washington! Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Koninklijk Huis Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) International Court of Justice (ICJ) International Criminal Court Norwegian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Today, we had a little farewell gathering for our interns, Kaia Sofie Engeset and Hilda Bævre Bergseth, who have been part of our team for the past 6 months. Kaia, our bilateral intern, has done an excellent job on political reporting and in organizing numerous cultural and business events in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. She is now heading to Denmark to pursue an MSc in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the University of Copenhagen. Hilda, our multilateral intern, has been instrumental in representing Norway and Norwegian interests at the multilateral institutions (ICC, ICJ and OPCW) in The Hague. She has also written excellent reports on the developments in these institutions. She will return to Norway to continue her studies in Law at the University of Oslo. We wish them both all the best and hope to see them again in the (near) future! #Farewell #Interns #LykkeTil #TakkForNå

Thank you Gemeente Groningen for a memorable and delightful day ahead of #GroningenSail🤗 Yesterday, Ambassador Bård Ivar Svendsen and Senior Adviser Gerber van Erven were honored to join the VIP program at #GroningenSail. The day featured a compelling panel debate on Energy with key insights from among others Equinor, Groningen Seaports and Business Region Kristiansand. In the evening, a beautiful reception was hosted by the municipality and Gasunie at the stunning Groninger Museum. This occasion was the perfect moment for Ambassador Svendsen to bid farewell to our dear partners in the region, like Mayor Koen Schuiling, King's Commissioner René Paas, and Cas König, Director of Groningen Seaports, among other regional stakeholders. A heartfelt thank you to Mayor Koen Schuiling, Vice-Mayors Carine Bloemhoff and Philip Broeksma and the entire municipal team for organizing such a memorable program and delightful evening. #EnergyDebate #Groningen #Farewell #GroningenSail

Today, deputy head of mission, Martina Østerhus and senior adviser Gerber van Erven had the pleasure to join Solenergiklyngen/The Norwegian Solar Energy Cluster on a very informative day hosted by Statkraft Netherlands. Jeroen van Mensvoort showed us Statkraft’s solarpark in Houten, where we learned among others things about their biodiversity and community involvement efforts. After lunch we were welcomed by Niels van der Linden at Statkraft’s office in Amsterdam, where we had the opportunity to hear from Floor Maassen from Holland Solar and Joris Besseling from TenneT about the Dutch lessons of scaling solar energy and tackling grid congestion. Martijn van der Pouw and Johannes Wouters respectively shared some insights on municipal permitting processes and battery storage. At the networking reception hosted by the Embassy, we also had the chance to meet some of the Dutch partners who will join the road trip tomorrow organized by Kay Cesar and his colleagues from TNO. Thanks to all speakers and participants and to Statkraft for hosting us today. We wish Solenergiklyngen/The Norwegian Solar Energy Cluster a very fruitful day tomorrow!

🎉 Last Tuesday, Ambassador Bård Ivar Svendsen hosted a wonderful reception to celebrate Norway's Constitution Day in The Hague. We were happy to celebrate this day together with our contacts and partners from the Netherlands and the international community, including ambassadors, defence attachés, government representatives, business leaders, cultural figures, and the dedicated volunteers from the Norwegian Seamen's Church. This special occasion also served as a farewell to Ambassador Svendsen and his partner Sergejs Savenko as they prepare to move to Washington DC later this summer. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us and to our generous sponsors — DNV, Equinor, The Norwegian Dutch Chamber of Commerce, Statkraft, and Yara International — for making this celebration possible! 🌟 #NorwayConstitutionDay #Farewell #Community #ThankYou

🎉 Congratulations to Elkem and EuroNordic Logistics on their fantastic new offices in Waalhaven, Rotterdam! Ambassador Bård Ivar Svendsen joins Elkem ASA’s CFO Morten Viga, our Honorary Consul and Managing Director of Elkem Maritime Centre Ellen Aarvaag Groeneveld and Kees Groeneveld, Director of EuroNordic logistics to celebrate their new offices as well as #Euronordic Logistics 25th anniversary alongside customers and partners from the Netherlands and Norway. 🇳🇴🇳🇱 Here's to many more years of success and collaboration! #Elkem #EuroNordic #Waalhaven #Rotterdam #25Years #Success #Partnerships

As our embassy is also accredited to Luxembourg, it is important for us to regularly visit the Grand Duchy. This year, we had the opportunity to organise our own celebration of Norway’s national day in Luxembourg. Representatives from the Norwegian community, Luxembourg society and the corps diplomatique joined us to attend a wonderful concert by the Oslo Kammerakademi. The musicians treated us to music by Mozart, the Norwegian composer Johan Kvandal and Beethoven, in the historical setting of the Trinity Church in the capital. During the following reception, the guests were able to greet old acquaintances and make new connections. All in all, the event reflected what ambassador Bård Ivar Svendsen said in his speech: “Norway and Luxembourg are prosperous nations with many common characteristics. We can learn a lot from each other.” Many thanks to our honorary consul-general, Espen Raakil (Norwegian Honorary Consulate General, Luxembourg), for assisting in organising this celebration!

Here’s a quick recap of #TeamNorway’s participation at the World Hydrogen Summit & Exhibition in Rotterdam last week! The Embassy was thrilled to see a strong turnout of Norwegian companies at the first-ever Norwegian pavilion at #WHS. We are extremely grateful for the excellent collaboration with Innovation Norway and other partners that helped create an exciting program for the Norwegian Hydrogen Value Chain: ▶ Norwegian companies pioneering low-carbon and renewable hydrogen were showcased at the H2 Tech Innovation Stage on Monday: ❇ Hilde Gillebo from the Norwegian Ministry of Energy delivered a keynote speech on Norway's Hydrogen Policy. ❇ A panel discussion with Henrik Andersen of Equinor, Vibeke Rasmussen of Yara Clean Ammonia and Bjørgulf Haukelidsæter Eidesen of Horisont Energi provided valuable insights into the progress of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen value chains. ❇ Johan Knijp from DNV gave a detailed analysis of the role of hydrogen and ammonia in the energy transition ❇ Marielle Furnes Mannseth from Norwegian Hydrogen and Axel Christian Klafstad from GreenH AS pitched some of Norway's green hydrogen solutions. ▶ On Tuesday, we co-organized a trilateral forum between Norway, The Netherlands, and Germany (https://lnkd.in/e_5n4q7p) to discuss cooperation and infrastructure projects around the North Sea. Dutch Minister of Energy and Climate Policy, Rob Jetten gave a keynote and visited the Norwegian pavilion afterwards, underscoring the importance of international collaboration in the hydrogen sector. ▶ In the evening, Ambassador Bård Ivar Svendsen hosted a dinner at the Seamen’s Church in Rotterdam to celebrate international cooperation with the Norwegian delegation, as well as guests from the Netherlands, Germany, and other stakeholders. A big thank you to everyone who participated and contributed. We look forward to continuing our work to promote green and low-carbon hydrogen as key technologies for the energy transition! We see you next year at the #WorldHydrogenSummit2025!

Yesterday, the embassy, in collaboration with Innovation Norway, Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) | Partner in Sustainable Development, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Germany and NRW.Energy4Climate organized a trilateral forum on #hydrogen cooperation in Northwestern Europe during the World Hydrogen Summit & Exhibition. Over 100 hydrogen professionals attended to hear from high-level representatives from industry and government and to discuss the potential of trilateral #cooperation between #Norway, the #Netherlands, and #Germany. Both industry leaders as well as government representatives ( Minister Rob Jetten (Ministerie van Economische Zaken en Klimaat), DG Dr. Philipp Steinberg (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action), State Secretary Silke Krebs (North Rhine-Westphalia) as well as Norway’s ambassador to the Netherlands Bård Ivar Svendsen emphasized the importance of cooperation across borders, as well as the necessity to recognize the role of low-carbon hydrogen in realizing a European hydrogen market. We would like to thank our partners, speakers, participants and our excellent moderator Jörg Gigler for the fruitful discussions! we hope this trilateral forum has served to foster prosperous collaborations for the future of hydrogen in North-West Europe. For more information about the trilateral forum, visit Business Norway’s LinkedIn Post: https://lnkd.in/e_5n4q7p photos: © Hannah Hansen