New Norwegian State Secretary
Ms. Elisabeth Walaas has been honourably dischared from her office as state secretary to Minister of Foreign Affairs Jonas Gahr Støre. Walaas will be replaced with Mr. Erik Lahnstein.
Ms. Walaas was in charge of many of the Foreign Ministry’s relations with Russia. Among the projects was Norway’s Action Plan on Nuclear Safety where she headed the Norwegian delegation in the joint Norwegian-Russian commission meeting (on the photo).
She also took part in many bilateral meetings within the Barents cooperation, and visited Murmansk on several occasions, last time upfront of the Barents Council meeting in October. Walaas was also Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s step-in at the official Norwegian visits to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in January 2009, as reported by BarentsObserver.
Ms. Elisabeth Walaas is the second State Secretary with special responsibility for projects related with Russia to be replaced during Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s time in office. Before Walaas, Liv Monica B. Stubholt was the Foreign Ministry’s State Secretary actively involved in Russian issues.
New State Secretary in Norway’s Foreign Ministry with effect from January 4th will be Mr. Erik Lahnstein. He comes from the position as State Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communication and represents the Centre Party.
It is, however, not said anything about which areas of Norway’s Foreign Policy Mr. Erik Lahnstein will be responsible for. The Office of the Prime Minister sent out a press release about the changes on Friday.
