On the morning of 22nd of May in Oslo, the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Espen Barth Eide, announced that Norway will sign the Arms Trade Treaty on 3rd of June. He also said that he will promote a swift ratification of the treaty this year.
International and national campaigners were there to celebrate and used the opportunity to hand over a set of recommendations to the Minster on how to ensure effective implementation of the treaty. The minster promised that Norway would encourage other states to sign the treaty, which he rightly did just a few minutes later in his opening speech to the international conference on “Reclaiming the Protection of Civilians under International Humanitarian Law” where he warmly welcomed the Treaty and called for wide signature and rapid entry into force.
“We are very happy that our Foreign Minister today confirmed that Norway will sign the Treaty and that he will encourage other states to do the same. By 3rd of June we are hoping that we have at least 100 countries ready to sign the arms trade treaty.”
– Andrew Preston director of Norwegian Forum for Development and Environment (one of the organisations on the Steering Board of Control Arms)
Norway has hence joined the growing number of States to go on record and confirm that they will be signing the Arms Trade Treaty on 3 June as part of the historic signing ceremony at United Nations Headquarters.
