Energy and regional issues were the focus of Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere's visit to the Kingdom. “We held a comprehensive long session today which focused on bilateral relations and means to reinforce them in many domains,” said Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs, during a joint press conference with Stoere. “We are as different as two countries can get… in culture, history and even climate, but we have one thing in common and that is we have both developed our energy fields,” said Stoere. Prince Saud said the Kingdom was looking forward to signing a free trade agreement in its final form between the GCC and countries of the European Free Trade Federation, which would benefit the commercial exchange, investment in goods and services. They also discussed cooperation to stabilize oil markets as prices hit new highs Monday. “With oil being one of the important domains for our countries, the present cooperation is perceived with a special significance in light of the importance of stability of the oil market,” said Prince Saud. “This year has witnessed a qualitative development in cooperation between us in the field of oil by focusing on environment and petroleum-related issues, and accumulation and injection of carbon in particular,” he said. “This goes in line with the international efforts and the Kingdom's initiative during the latest OPEC summit in Riyadh which called for establishing a $300 million research center on climate change, environment and energy.” Norwegian Foreign Minister visited the Human Rights Association and urged the Kingdom to invite Amnesty International to visit the Kingdom. “We applaud Saudi Arabia for allowing the Human's Right Watch to visit the Kingdom and we think Saudi Arabia should also be brave to allow Amnesty International to visit,” said Stoere. Stoere also called on King Abdullah late Monday afternoon. He praised the King's call for inter-religious dialogue, stating that Norway had also sought this type of interaction. Prince Saud appreciated Norway's positive participation in the Mideast peace process. Norway was the sponsor of Oslo agreement which resulted in the Palestinian Authority in the occupied territories. He also hoped that the Lebanese political crisis would end soon. “We hope that the identified date, May 13, will be a final date for opening the parliament.” He denied that Syrian Present Bashar Al-Assad would be visiting the Kingdom shortly. “I have not heard of this visit,” said Prince Saud who also rebutted comments made by news agencies that Iran offered to mediate. __
