Minister of Foreign Affairs’ speech at the Internet Governance Forum 2025

(As delivered)

Thank you, Nathalie, and let me join my dear colleague, Minister Karianne Tung, in welcoming you. I give you all a warm welcome to Norway and to the Internet Governance Forum 2025.  

It's the 20th edition of this meeting. It has its roots, as you all know, back in the World Summit on the Information Society, which decided that we need such a multi-stakeholder platform to discuss how we jointly manage and govern the Internet. How we make sure that it remains open, inclusive, and safe, and how we see this as a global public good, a global common in many ways. 

It is an incredible story. I think everyone here knows how, what began as ARPANET, as a military research project in the US,  in the 80s turned into what we know is Internet. Then came the World Wide Web, and eventually the Internet has grown into something never ever seen by mankind.  

The Internet is the most important infrastructure on this planet. The most important “machine” that mankind has ever created and today it is a part of everything. 

Whether you think of it or not it's the backbone, it's the fundament of almost all the new technologies we speak about. The cloud is not literally in the clouds. The cloud is data centers, it is fiber optical cables, it is telecommunications companies, it is information management, it is cyber security, it is everything. It is such a fundamental platform for our modern lives. Much of it is in the private sector today, and clearly in the future 

As Minister Tung said, as a fellow Norwegian with her, I cannot really imagine what life was before everything was connected. If somebody showed me a Norwegian coin or paper money, I don't think I would recognize it, because I haven't seen one for many years. Apparently, they still exist, but I haven't seen them. 

Everything is digital in this country, and in so many countries. That makes us more efficient, that opens a host of new opportunities, but of course it also makes us vulnerable, which is also an important element of understanding why we need a solid internet that works, that delivers, that is open, that is safe, and that is inclusive. Because it is such an important part of everything else. It is important in itself and in everything else. 

We very much believe that this governance initiative needs exactly what this forum provides, a multi-stakeholder approach. Because there are so many actors in the private sector, in governments, in academia and in research, in civil society, youth, as we particularly highlight, which will live their whole life in an internet-dominated world. And we see these endless opportunities, which is also what Kofi Annan spoke about when he was the Secretary General of the UN, when all this was shaped 20 years ago. And I think we still see the endless opportunities to overcome the digital divide, to clearly bring more people into development, modernity, to be more efficient, to be smarter, to optimize, to deal with common challenges in ways that we did not even imagine only a few decades ago. 

But we also learned about the pitfalls, the challenges, the problems. We learned about the risk of manipulation, the risk of polarization through social media, obviously the risk of data theft, the risk of threats to our security.  

And as a foreign minister, I very much see the Internet and everything digital as part of how we govern the world. As such, I see the same competition for resources, the same competition for technology, the same competition for influence. The same shifts of power that I can see in the more physical world is also definitely represented in the digital world. So, all these are themes that we will discuss here. 

So my main message, as I end this welcoming intervention, is that this is incredibly high on the agenda, as it should be. We should keep the internet open, inclusive and safe. And we should make sure that we maintain solid multi-stakeholder participation. 

This is not something that can be dealt with by people like me, like governments alone. We're way beyond that point. We have to engage with all those actors that in the real physical world are actually defining the future of the internet. 

I wish you very, very good conversations. I am really happy that they take place here. I should of course say that this is the largest UN conference of its kind in Norway, the first in this field. 

And we are incredibly proud to be hosts. I hope you will find us as good hosts. And we look forward to learning the outcomes of all your deliberations. 

Thank you for the attention.