OSLO: The thick ice between China and Norway seems to slowly be melting. After a six-year long dispute between the two countries, Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, announce that she will be travelling to China this week and meet with President Xi Jinping to resume work on a free trade agreement between the countries.
On Friday 7 April 2017, Solberg will be received by China’s Prime Minister, Li Keqiangand, and on Sunday she will meet with Xi Jinping. Along with her will be the Norwegian Foreign Minister and the Minister of Trade and Industry.
“I am glad that we now normalize our diplomatic and political relations with China. The visit shows that both countries want to re-establish a long-term, broad and forward-looking cooperation,” says Erna Solberg in a press release.
The two countries started their work on a free trade agreement in 2008, but it was put on hold after Liu Xiaobo received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Liu Xiaobo was arrested in China in December 2008 and is serving an 11-year sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” by organizing a petition urging an end to one-party rule. Norway awarding him the Nobel piece price causing a dispute between the two countries.
