The Soria Moria declaration is a Norwegian political statement forming the basis of Jens Stoltenberg's second and first government. The statement outlines the focus and priority of the so-called Red-Green Coalition government of Labour Party, the Centre Party and Socialist Left Party. After the election victory on 12 September 2005, the three parties agreed to launch negotiations on government at the Soria Moria Hotel in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. Negotiations began on 26 September and ended with a press conference on 13 November where the official government policy was presented. Soria Moria carries a reference to the famous Norwegian fairy tale about a poor lad's journey to the

Soria Moria Castle Soria Moria Castle (''Soria Moria slott'') is a Norwegian fairy tale made famous by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in their classical ''Norske Folkeeventyr''. Later Andrew Lang included the story in his series of fairy tale collecti ...

, a Norwegian folk tale about a

Shambhala In Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Shambhala ( sa, शम्भल ',''Śambhala'', also ''Sambhala'', is the name of a town between the Rathaprā and Ganges rivers, identified by some with Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh. In the Puranas, it is named as t ...

like kingdom. On the way Halvor, the protagonist, have to fight a number of terrible

troll A troll is a being in Nordic folklore, including Norse mythology. In Old Norse sources, beings described as trolls dwell in isolated areas of rocks, mountains, or caves, live together in small family units, and are rarely helpful to human bei ...

s before conquering the heart of the princess of Soria Moria. The story ends with a fantastic wedding at the castle. Among the topics that were negotiated for were: *

Oil exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; no, Barentshavet, ; russian: Баренцево море, Barentsevo More) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territo ...

, * Norwegian agricultural conditions, including ongoing negotiations in the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

, *

Norwegian military The Norwegian Armed Forces ( no, Forsvaret, , The Defence) is the armed forces, military organization responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of five branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Norwegian ...

participation in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

; the declaration resulted in an apparent stop in Norwegian contributions to

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

, since these were seen as ''offensive'' operations without a UN mandate. Norway was instead to contribute to

ISAF ' ps, کمک او همکاري ' , allies = Afghanistan , opponents = Taliban Al-Qaeda , commander1 = , commander1_label = Commander , commander2 = , commander2_label = , commander3 = , command ...

. * organization of public hospitals, * publicly funded

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

lunches, * grades in school, and * opportunity for gays to marry and be considered as adoptive parents.

References

Politics of Norway {{Norway-poli-stub